


not always from the sky

by yellowhalcyon



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Alien Biology, Aliens, Chases, Demon Shane Madej, Desert, Dorks in Love, FBI Agent Shane Madej, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Hand Jobs, Interspecies Relationship(s), Kissing, M/M, Minor Injuries, RPF, ryan makes a little alien friend
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-16
Updated: 2019-02-16
Packaged: 2019-08-03 02:34:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 23,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16317494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yellowhalcyon/pseuds/yellowhalcyon
Summary: Living in the middle of the desert was a great idea, until a space ship crash landed in Ryan's front yard and a new alien creature entered his life, along with a tall, dark, and handsome FBI agent.Nope, it all still seemed like a good idea.EDIT: not abandoned i just have a lot on my plate rn13/06/19: I'm finally getting back into this so should be finished soon31/07/19: literally just need to write the last section





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay, we love a demon shane, she's a beauty, but also i was writing a demon fic & then got stuck and so this one now has to have demon!shane in it to make up for that. :3

Ryan reluctantly flicked on the hob and shuffled his feet about in the fluffy ghost slippers, his brother bought him last Christmas. He yawned for like the millionth time, the dull light of the kitchen still scratching at his eyes. Rubbing them, he got to work collecting everything else he would need to make a cup of coffee at 3am: kettle on the hob, mug, spoon, _several_ grams of sugar.

Ryan yawned again. Insomnia continued to remain the pure bane of his existence. Admittedly he’d tried to sleep for last few hours, but every time he closed his eyes an unexplainable disturbance settled in his bones and he knew then that he wouldn’t sleep a wink tonight. He needed to get important work done tomorrow – or technically later today – as well as clean this house, since it technically he didn’t own it, and so coffee it was.

He would blame the change of scenery or the quiet desert air over the bustling, sleepless, city white noise. However, since moving out to a place in the middle of nowhere, he had never had better night's sleeps. Except the times when he still couldn’t sleep at all, always one way or the other because life loved being kind to him like that.

‘Oh, come on,’ Ryan said, mumbling on the edge of irritation.

Did the kettle usually take this long or could sleep deprivation make him perceive time at a slower rate? He hugged his chest and suppressed the next yawn. He should have worn more than just a thin shirt and PJ bottoms when he finally decided to leave the bed. Despite being the middle of summer, the hot desert air turned into practically the opposite once the sun went down. He ran his arms up and down each other for a little warmth.

But when he stopped, his body kept on vibrating.

Ryan glanced around in confusion. ‘What the hell..?’ he said. The vibrations only grew worse.

On the kitchen hob in front, the kettle began to sing, getting louder and louder. The very ground beneath Ryan’s feet erupted with turbulence and he had to grab at the surface top for balance. His coffee mug almost went flying if not for his fast reflexes. Gradually a bright light, brighter than the sun, sored past the night’s sky outside the window.

‘Holy shit!’ Ryan said, although more like screamed at the top of his lungs. Wide eyed and heart in his mouth, he ducked down for safety and what sounded like a train crash played out in the desert stretch right beside the house. The kettle was screaming now from above and whatever had landed exploded upon impacted, a fiery blaze shooting upwards and illuminating the entire kitchen.

Then nothing.

Once he felt sure the rumbling had stopped, Ryan slowly reached up and peered out.

He switched off the hob with one hand, with the other he put his coffee mug down on the floor. A flickering light seemed to be reaching out from a distance somewhere away from the house, but he couldn’t see it from the current angle. Ryan straightened up on a knee click. He still couldn’t see it.

He tried waiting for his breathing and heartrate to return to normal, but soon gave up on that and rushed out of the house, only stop dead on the front porch. He let out a little laugh that dissolved into a yelp.

A craft. A shiny blue craft had crash-landed on the desert floor. An alien spaceship was currently lying in a fiery heap on the front fricking garden.

Aliens! They _were_ real! And they had just crashed into the ground right in front of him.

Well… a good couple of hundred yards away. Almost so far away he could only just about make them out, but there was no mistaking what Ryan saw. There was an unidentifiable craft at the end of this fiery crash trail.

Without a second thought, he got his bike out of the garage and started down the stretch towards the craft. It ended up being harder to peddle in his fluffy ghost slippers than he’d anticipated. The little surprised ghost faces kept coming up to meet him and falling back down. He should have thought to change footwear.

‘Shit, shit, shit,’ Ryan said, exclaiming as he struggled to keep balance on the bumpy, uneven ground.

Once within a certain distance he got off and left the bike on its side, sprinting over to the craft. Most of the fire had disappeared. However, a strong heat radiated off most of the ground and the entire craft itself. Ryan trended carefully.

The craft itself looked nothing like how they did in the movies. In fact, if anything it looked almost exactly like a human fight plane, except with a pinch of uncanny valley thrown in there. The fin on the end bent in a way that seemed unfamiliar and the material of the plane shone in a way he’d couldn’t place properly in his mind.

Ryan had only really come for a look to prove it was all real. Until, abruptly, a pained screech came from inside the craft, screaming and jumping back as a figured bumped into the main glass of the ship.

‘Dear lord and all above, please be gentle on my soul,’ he exclaimed in one breath. He wanted to bolt for it. The adrenaline took over, but one last look through his arms and Ryan saw something that …didn’t appear to want to hurt him.

If anything, they looked more like they needed help. A small creature scrambled around the window screaming, on a similar note to how a dog would if you stood on their tail. Ryan couldn’t know for sure, but the screams intensified and he knew if he didn’t do something now then that noise was definitely going to haunt his dreams.

Ryan exhaled, getting all the air out of his lungs. ‘Ugh, of course, I’m fucking doing this. If you get yourself killed, Ryan, and I’m gonna kick your ass,’ he said.

He searched around for a weapon to break the craft window or anything that didn’t happen to be on fire. A sizeable rock, which he could probably pick up, lay a few metres away. He ran towards it and shuffled it up into his arms. The dirt from the underside coated his arms, sand scratching at the skin. Raising the rock to about his head, he shimmied to a spot where he most likely couldn’t miss the window and with all his might threw it down at the glass.

 _Crunch_!

The rock smashed straight through and disappeared into the darkness of the craft. Ryan waited in the silence and for the longest second thought he’d killed the creature. A soft cry halted on his open mouth.

Until a small head popped up from the cracked glass. The creature looks like a fox with big, wide ears but the snout came up too short and they had no distinguishable nose. Their fur seemed transparent and shiny, like small spikes of glass covering their entire body, which for a good moment Ryan thought was glass from the smashed craft window. But then the fur then moved with the creature, reflecting off the fire. The spikes didn’t possess any distinct colour, mainly appearing a dark blue. Their all black eyes focused on Ryan and then quick as a flash, they darted from the ship.

Ryan jumped back, startled, holding up his arms again, ‘holy shit!’ Scanning about, he couldn’t see where they’d gone. The fire of the wreck only reached out so far into the dense desert surroundings and they’d moved pretty fast. He listened for a small second longer, then made a break for his bike.

Yanking it up and jumping on, he shot straight back towards the house. When thinking about it, he didn’t really know what he was running from, he simply needed to be in the house with at least one layer of _something_ between him and that wreck for now. Once within reach, he abandoned the bike on the porch and darted for the door.

A figure flashed across the space in front and before Ryan knew it the creature presumably made move for him.

‘Ahhh! No, please,’ he jumped back and then saw they landed too far away to have been making an attack at him.

Instead, the creature collided with the bench propped up against his house wall. The bench shattered under their weight and they scrambled around frantic in the broken shards of wood, obviously startled.

Ryan raised his arms and attempted to calm the creature down as they wriggled around in the splintered wood, ‘hey, hey, it’s okay, you don’t have to be scared, buddy, I won’t hurt you. Let me help,’ he carefully tried to edge closer to them.

Ryan heard an abrupt creek coming from a wooden panel on the porch floor behind him and felt a hand land on his shoulder.

His vision went black.

¬

Ryan awoke in the bed.

Nothing immediately appeared out of the ordinary.

Except he laid on top his covers, which he never did. The remnants of someone else putting him to bed brushed up against his memories, although he couldn’t make anything coherent stick in his mind. He wore the same PJs from the night before, but upon physical inspection, his face and hair were clean from sand and muck and his slippers sat undisturbed in the corner of his room. He sat upright and glanced around. Nothing out of place, but he hadn’t done anything in this room by the point of that crash.

Rubbing his sleepy eyes, he went to the bathroom to wash his face. It wasn’t an odd occurrence for him to dream about doing real life stuff around the house, especially when he’d been struggling to sleep that night, but, honestly, never anything like this before. Staring in the mirror, big dark circles remained under his eyes nonetheless.

Ryan returned to the bedroom. He never really got dressed until later in the day, so moved to the window to open the curtains.

_The wreck was gone._

Ryan blinked and rubbed his eyes once more.

_Nope, still gone._

‘Well that settles it, it must have been a weird dream then,’ he said, before changing his mind and closing the curtains again.

 _Awwwwwwoooooooooooooooohhhhhh_!

His phone’s ringtone almost made him piss his pants on the spot. Certainly when his brother’s one was a recording of the two of them pretending to be werewolves. Incessant fake-hauling filled the air. Ryan clutched his chest, trying to get his heartrate down as he moved over to his phone to answer.

‘Hey,’ he said.

‘Hey, bro,’ Jake’s voice came through the line. After a moment of silence, his brother spoke again, ‘…you okay?’

Ryan shook some sense into himself, trying to blame all this confusion about a space ship crash on the fact he only just woke up. ‘Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,’ he said.

Jake punctured the silence that settled again. ‘You sure?’ he said, dragging out the word.

‘Yeah... Yes, I am,’ Ryan said. He shook himself down for firmly and shoved his feet into his fluffy slippers. ‘Just, weird dream.’

‘Aren’t all dreams weird for you?’

‘No,’ Ryan frowned, but he struggled not to smile at the sound of his brother’s light giggling. ‘Your ringtone scared the shit out of me.’

‘Again?’ Jake full-on chuckled.

Ryan grinned himself walking down the stairs and found his coffee mug on the kitchen floor. The smile flopped off his face.

He took the last step slowly and walked over to stand in the doorway of the kitchen, staring at the lone mug for a long moment. Maybe he _had_ gotten up in the night and left the cup before _getting distracted with something else_?

‘Ryan?’ Jake said over the phone, almost sounding concerned now. ‘Ryan, are you still there?’

Ryan shook his head. ‘Yes, yes,’ he said. ‘Just yeah, really weird dream.’

‘Must have been,’ Jake said. ‘How many hours did you get last night?’

Running a hand through his hair, he said, ‘I’m honestly not sure.’ Ryan finally managed to take a step in the kitchen and went straight over to the mug. He picked up in a firm motion and plopped it down on the kitchen surface, which lead him to noticing the kettle nestled on the hob and not on the heat mat he usually left it on. ‘Okay that part is weird,’ he said.

‘What is?’ Jake said and reminded him he was still in a conversation with someone.

Ryan decided to confide in him. ‘Alright, alright, I had a dream last night where I couldn’t sleep and went to make some coffee,’ he said.

‘Normal stuff,’ Jake said, commenting.

Ryan hypothetically brushed it aside with a gesture. ‘Yeah, well, then an alien space crashed landed in my front yard,’ he said.

Jake whistled. ‘Sweet, did it have a freaky alien inside?’ he said, obviously seeing this as exactly that, just another weird dream, which wasn’t too implausible.

‘Kinda, although they were more like a small animal than humanoid,’ Ryan said. ‘That’s not the weird bit though.’

‘Oh?’

‘The weird part is that the wreckage is gone,’ Ryan said. ‘Which fair enough if it’s a dream, but my kettle is still on the hob and my mug was still on the floor where I left it after I remember ducking away from the crash.’

Jake made a considering noise. ‘That is a little weird, I guess,’ he said.

‘I don’t know what to make of it,’ Ryan said with a small head shake. ‘I also woke up on top of my covers. Not in my bed like a normal person, but lying on top of them like someone put me there.’

‘Are there signs that someone’s been in the house, d’think?’ Jake said, finally serious.

A cold shiver ran down Ryan’s back at the prospect. ‘I haven’t checked yet,’ he said.

‘I, uh, wouldn’t think about it too hard, Ryan,’ Jake said, sincere, he knew the imagination of his brother better than anyone, ‘you don’t wanna spook yourself.’

‘Yeah,’ Ryan said, trying to implement that action with much difficulty. ‘Hopefully it’s all just sleep deprivation,’ he suggested.

‘Which is still a bad thing you know?’ Jake said, reminding tone.

‘I know.’ They had gone over this argument many times before.

Jake didn’t let the conversation turn sour for long, though. ‘Anyways,’ he said, shifting about as he spoke and Ryan could picture him sitting up in renewed excitement, ‘did you get the shirt I sent you?’

‘Yes,’ Ryan said. His eyes moved to the pile of unopened packaged in the corner, one of which had his brother’s curly, neat handwriting on the front and bent in the way a package did when it had a shirt inside.

‘And what do you think?’

Ryan used the first general word that came to mind. ‘It’s pretty cool. I haven’t worn it yet though.’ More like because he’d been too busy filling his day with work and chores to allow himself some pleasures yet.

‘Pretty cool? Haven’t even worn it yet? Thanks, Ryan.’

‘You’re very welcome,’ Ryan responded, not smiling.

‘You’re the best, I swear,’ Jake said, but he still laughed. ‘Oh shit, I gotta go. My break ended like three minutes ago.’ Movement sounded on the other side of the line whilst he presumably got up to get closer to his work bag. ‘Don’t scare yourself too hard on this, Ryan, okay? You don’t wanna start thinking your first ever housesit is haunted.’

‘If I do, you just put that idea in my head.’

Jake sighed loudly on the other end. ‘Sure, I did,’ he said, probably on an eyeroll as well. ‘Goodbye, bro. Love you.’

‘Love you too. See ya, Jake,’ Ryan said and hung up.

¬ 

Ryan almost dropped his fresh mug of coffee at the sight of the broken bench. ‘How did I break that in my sleep?!’ he couldn’t help but say out loud, then took a firm sip of his drink, and swallowed heavily. The coffee reached his stomach long before he realised it wouldn’t help his currently climbing heartrate.

  
Something had happened. Something _must have_ happened; all the signs were there, except the big main one of a spaceship wreckage in the front yard.

Cautiously Ryan walked over to the shattered bench and nudged a shard with his foot. He took another sip and gazed out to where he’d dreamed up a burning inferno of blue craft wreckage the night before. Now, the ground appeared smooth and untouched, even with small patches of grass growing in little spots here and there. None of this made sense.

‘It was just a dream, Ryan,’ Ryan said and put his eyes immediately back on the collapsed bench. He groaned in frustration and concluded he’d at least finish his coffee and wake up first, before then trying to make proper head or tail of anything. If something had truly happened then he’d find out, some way or other. His brother was right, he couldn’t do anything but keep scaring himself on this more and more.

Ryan got to work cleaning this house instead, since he didn’t owe it and promising to keep it tidy was part of the house-sitting contract. He hovered the floor, swept the front yard, and washed the dinner plates left from most of the previous week’s dinners. The idea had originally been his brother’s idea for Ryan to get out of the city for a while and, with his almost constant time on the internet, it didn’t take him long to find a website where people could housesit each other’s properties. This exact house stood out for how it was barely seven hours away and he could be here for over two months at a reasonable price. When he realised how serious he felt about this idea, Ryan sent out and email and moved in two weeks later.

Now he stood in front of the collapsed bench for a long minute, wondering how much it was going to cost to replace. He sighed, if he knew for sure how it had broken he could possibly explain that to the owners and maybe they’d understand. It had better not cost a bomb to replace, let alone be trouble to find the exact copy. He assumed he’d have to take in the shard with the logo and ask if they had that one in store. His thoughts moved onto his car and whether it would start after three weeks of no use because now he needed to make a trip into town.

Ryan headed back indoors to retrieve his keys. A strange crunching noise protruding from the kitchen caught his attention. He froze and his head moved of its own volition towards the room. Panic tickled up his spine as he approached.

He spotted the pile of crumbs first, some spilling off the counter. Second, he spotted the wriggling Oreos packet in small, black, clawed hands. And finally, of course, he became aware of the small weird creature sat on the kitchen counter top. They squeaked and whined whilst eating, scribbling to get another biscuit in their hand. Their fur didn’t glint as much inside the kitchen without fire or even the sun, therefore the spikes didn’t appear as much like glass. Ryan halted at the door and watched them pull out another Oreo, carefully pull it apart, and scoff down the cream off the other.

‘Okay, not so much a dream,’ Ryan said. It didn’t take long for them to notice him in the background of the room with his crisp, white shirt.

The creature let go of the Oreo packet but didn’t dart away on instinct.

Ryan glanced down at the mess, noticing the untouched biscuit halves and the fluffy cream on their claws. They weren’t eating the whole biscuits just the crème in the middle. ‘You like icing, huh? I can give you some of that.’ he said. The adrenaline took control. Heart in his mouth, he carefully inched over to the cupboard and pulled out a jar. ‘Here, if I feed you then we can be friends and you won’t eat out my eyeballs.’ Walking slow steps over towards the creature, he took a clean knife from the sink on the way. ‘Okay, slow movements. We’re all harmless here. Please don’t eat my eyeballs.’

They stood opposite each other now, almost at similar height. The creature never once removed their beady eyes from his body while Ryan gently undid the lid. At least he assumed so, with them being all black made it hard to tell exactly where they were looking. He got a clump of icing and gingerly directed the knife towards them.

The creature eyed the creamy utensil, jerky movements reminding Ryan that of a bird. Until they opened their mouth and a three-pronged red tongue slid out. They licked the tiniest piece of cream off the knife so only a small dot of white rested on one of the tips. The tongue smoothly retracted and the creature tasted the icing.

After a second, what resembled a smile spread across their snout, revealing a spacious set of sharp red-ish teeth. They hopped closer to the knife and began nibbling the icing.

‘This is perfectly normal,’ Ryan said, the creature lapping up the icing. ‘I’m just feeding a small dream!alien icing in someone else’s kitchen. As you do.’

The creature made a small squeaky noise, almost as if they’d try to understand what he said and were attempting a response.

‘Yeah, I’m real funny.’ Ryan titled his head with them and smiled. ‘Ricky, I’m gonna call you Ricky,’ he said. ‘You strike me as kinda a Ricky when I first saw you …after you crashed landed in my front yard in my dream.’

Ricky squeaked again. They licked the knife clean and then seemed confused about the lack of icing further up the blade.

Ryan pulled the knife back. ‘Hey, hey,’ he said, even able to chuckle a little, ‘I gotta put more back on the knife first.’

They followed him back with the movement and soon decided his arm served as better entertainment. Something wet brushed against his skin and Ryan glanced down to see their thin tongue swipe against his lower arm. He tried to suppress a cringe to avoid startling Ricky. Before he knew it, they brushed up against his torso.

Slowly he raised a hand up to their head, still somewhat high on adrenaline, and attempted a small fingered pet on the few spikes sticking out above Ricky’s eyes. Ryan couldn’t believe his hand. The spikes felt super soft, like feathers of a chicken. It almost didn’t make sense in his brain and he’d probably get a headache from dwelling on it too long. They looked sharp but felt like satin. ‘You are full of surprises, Ricky,’ he said down at them.

They travelled further towards his body and curled around his back, hopping down from the kitchen counter top. Ryan watched Ricky approach the back door on all fours. Little odd white pawprints trailed behind them. Observing their stride, he could see now their front arms were longer than their back legs. He expected a tail, but found nothing. Ricky tapped the door frame with a firm claw.

Ryan walked over and opened it for them. ‘You wanna go outside now, buddy?’ he said.

Ricky gazed up at him with his interesting half-face and squeaked again. He’d planned to follow them out but they darted from the door, nearly too fast for Ryan to process.

He blinked at the desert scenery, trying to spot them anywhere around. Blinking too much, he almost didn’t notice the sparkling up on the hill beside the house. Patterned at first but it didn’t take long for him to become aware of irregularity. Ryan frowned. Abruptly the unmistakable feeling of someone watching him tickled the hairs on the back of his neck. Shivering, he really hoped the flashes were nothing but that tickling continued to tell him otherwise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This mildly based off my rediscoverment of [this](http://yellowhalcyon.tumblr.com/post/169682963958/void-bee-here-you-go-friend-it-took-me-12) but with Shane looking like [this](http://yellowhalcyon.tumblr.com/post/171583378038/faequill-crunchywrites-teachershane-looks), he will be in the next chapter.
> 
> ryan's brother actually [made a shirt for him](http://yellowhalcyon.tumblr.com/post/179124447074/rycnbergara-i-love-them) cos they're adorable nerds like that. (i somehow managed to find a post for this, which i then immediately reblogged, lol :P cos i only had it screenshotted on my phone).
> 
> hopefully I'll be more happy with later chapters, which is a shame cos I thought it was finally starting to like my writing. :[


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i don’t why i’m so worried about this coming across as too quick, when poe canonically fell in love with finn in TFA within five minutes

The garage door got stuck again. Ryan sighed and pushed the button once more but with a little harder force this time. When nothing happened, he tried pushing the _down_ button and, of course, the door began moving back down again.

‘No, no, no, stop that,’ Ryan said, cursing everything under the sun. He wanted to hit the stupid thing. But, the trouble there being that he didn’t own it, so if he broke it, he’d have to bail out for the expresses as part of the housesit contract.

Ryan exhaled all the air from his lungs. He tried the _up_ button again and the door started crawl back up. And got stuck in the exact same place. Bumping his head against the frame, he wished for death.

Thankfully, like what happened occasionally, it sorted itself out this time and continued its route upwards, all the way. Neck straining, Ryan scowled at it disdainfully until the entire metal sheet completely disappeared.

He entered the garage, eyes taking a good second to adjust to the light, and frowned at the sight of his bike leant up on the far wall.

A creature of habit, he usually left it hidden in the corner behind his car, out of sight in case someone managed to get this stupid fucking door open and then tried to steal it. He would never leave it there. But also, if he did, he would definitely remember. Walking over to the metallic frame, he regarded it for a second before shuffling it back to its usual hidden spot. After everything that had gone down with Ricky for the past few days, he gave up trying to find explanations for things anymore.

Ryan got into his car, placing the patterned broken shard from the bench on the passenger seat. Normally, when he wanted to head into town, he’d cycle to the nearest bus stop and take the bus in. This meant, unfortunately, he’d have to drag his bike around town until he got back to the housesit again, but it was also cheaper, especially with Ryan’s lazy habit of buying a meal deal dinner, rather than cooking. (Partly out from laziness and partly because he would have to keep the kitchen clean all the while he cooked something.) However, for now, if he found a bench matching the original enough to buy, he wouldn’t be able to get it back to the housesit on a bike, so he needed to take his car.

His car couldn’t start. He spent the next ten minutes trying to find the jump starter power pack and another seven minutes working out how to use it, correctly and safely. A sign of relief washed over him when the engine roared into life, since he would still need to use the car to get back home in seven weeks’ time.

The aircon instantly shot a blast of warm air into the holes on his dungarees, shaking his legs to spread the heat around. Ryan drove out, after making sure the stupid door travelled all the way back down, and popped the address of the nearest shopping village into his phone’s sat nav. He’d been there maybe two or three times before when he first moved into the housesit and had been searching for somewhere to get the new bed sheets he needed, when he hadn’t thought to take with him. The travel method remained just on the far side of expensive so he’d been very thankful when a retail worker informed him of a nearby supermarket he could get to from the housesit by bus instead.

Along the way there, Ryan ended up coming alongside that bus he usually got. He watched it disappear down the road towards the winding trail of the housing estates, which led to the journey taking an hour longer than it could have been.

But then, in a twist of fate, he got caught in traffic and had to watch the same bus go speeding past in the other empty lane.

Ryan parked up in the large car park and headed over to Home Depot first. He didn’t bother with a trolley, clutching the bench shard in hand, and beelined straight towards the outside garden area. His eyes scanned the walls of shelving to pick up on anything remotely tanned brown. He glanced back and forth from the shard up to the walls as he walked.

The benches were in the far back shelving unit, right next to the towering, sinisterly barbed at the top, fence that closed off the garden section from the roads nearby. He doubted it was electrocuted, but the barbed wire added a layer of protection that seemed a little out of place. The benches had them stacked up only to the second shelf, with sacks of soil and pots on the further up ones.

Scanning, Ryan made quick work narrowing down to the correctly shaped benches and then the ones that had the carving in the right place. Thankfully, from there, only two bench types seemed to have the matching shard. However, they were up on the second shelf and he couldn’t check the detailing just yet from down here.

Ryan reckoned he could lift one up and pull it to down to examine the pattern more closely. Benches couldn’t be that heavy; he’d never heard of them being the sort of thing to require multiple people to get onto a property.

Upon attempting this, never had he been more wrong.

First, Ryan tucked the bench shard away, where it fitted neatly in the front pocket of his dungarees. He tried to the raise the bench off the one behind it and then get it forward on the shelf, once there he could lift with both hands to get it down to the ground. But it moved further along than he would have wanted and then suddenly Ryan was face to face with the last plank on the seat, inches away from his nose. Somewhere above the back of bench had gotten caught on its partner. It didn’t sound like it would remain caught for long, however.

‘Oh no,’ Ryan said before he finally felt it give. He threw his other arm up and squeezed his eyes shut in anticipation.

Except the bench didn’t immediately fall on top of him. He’d felt it slide down with the hand still on it, but then it stopped. Ryan became aware of a strong heat source behind him and popped one eye open to see an arm outstretched above. A soft tie brushed across the back of his ear and across to his cheek.

The face of a bearded, white man peered down at him. They blinked, ‘you alright down there?’

Ryan gaped and removed his supporting arm on instinct, only to realise the man could apparently take the entire weight of the bench with one hand. But the situation stopped him thinking on it too much in the moment.

‘I’ll take that as a yes,’ the man said, before ‘allow me,’ and he pushed the bench back into a safe position.

They stepped away and Ryan instantly noticed a loss of heat to the area next to him. He ran a hand through his hair and collected himself, coming down from the adrenaline rush. He looked to the man and slowly registered the black suit, red tie, shiny shoes, he could be wrong but this man gave off heavy official government vibes. Coughing, Ryan said, ‘something, uh, something tells me, you didn’t help me out of the kindness of your own heart.’

The man met his eye and half smiled. ‘That would be correct,’ he said. ‘Mr. Ryan Bergara,’ he retrieved a badge from his pocket and held it up. ‘I’m Special Agent Shane Madej of the FBI. I’d like to ask you a few questions.’

Ryan thought he should have been surprised but after feeding a strange creature with icing sugar on the end of a knife for the last few days, being cornered by an FBI agent in a shopping centre seemed almost a relief at this point. So it seemed only natural to go with the flow. ‘Okay, what about?’ he said.

‘The recent events that transpired in your home,’ Shane said, ‘the other night especially, and the appearance of an unknown alien creature, which you have been seen to have had contact with.’

Ryan gulped. ‘Skipping straight to the point?’

‘Of course,’ Shane said, nodding.

Despite his knowledge of the situation being more than Ryan what made comfortable and the initial shock of finding out someone knew what he knew now, he didn’t feel intimidated by Shane. The man stood a whole head above him but his eyes were soft and his ruffled and beard only added to the rest of his soft demeanour. It let Ryan feel confident in his presence. ‘What are you gonna do if I don’t answer?’ he said.

Shane smiled, amused. ‘I am here for your protection, Mr. Bergara, nothing will be done,’ he said. ‘I want you to trust me and give your answers freely.’

‘Is that so?’ Ryan tilted his head just so. ‘Okay, well if you want my trust, you’re gonna have to earn it and I wanna make it clear, I’m not answering any questions until you do.’

Shane held up his hands, still smiling. ‘That’s fair,’ he said. ‘Is there anything I could do to make that happen?’

‘Um,’ Ryan thought for a moment. A yawn bubbled in the back of his throat and it brought forth a new idea. ‘You could buy me coffee,’ he said. At Shane’s eyebrow raise, he hurried on an explanation. That had come out wrong. ‘I, uh, haven’t had a chance to get one yet and I’m probably gonna need it.’ The appearance of Ricky had had exactly zero effect on his atrocious sleeping habits.

Shane closed his eyes briefly on consideration. He nodded and stepped to the side. ‘Very well,’ he said. ‘Lead the way, Mr. Bergara.’

Relaxed but still cautious, Ryan led the way out of Home Depot. He’d seen a Starbucks on the way in and the itch of caffeine called to him. ‘Ryan,’ he said, insisting. ‘Please call me Ryan. Mr. Bergara is weird to hear.’

Shane gave a little laugh. ‘I can imagine,’ he said, ‘actually, I feel the same whenever people at the base call me _Agent Madej_. It’s just Shane but, meh,’ he shrugged, ‘work formalities.' 

Ryan regarded him for a moment, looking up at his fluffy hair as it jiggled when he walked, and couldn’t stop the grin tugging at his lips. ‘You’re not like most FBI agents,’ he said,

‘You know many then?’ Shane said, not returning his gaze.

‘Well, I… I meant like in the movies,’ Ryan said to recover. ‘They’re usually stoic, stern, intimidating.’

‘Do I not intimidate you, Ryan?’ Shane said and he finally met his eye.

‘Not one bit,’ Ryan said honestly, ‘no, not really.’ He didn’t know what part of his gut was letting him trust this man he’d just met, but he couldn’t deny the almost wave of calm that had washed through him from meeting Shane only minutes prior. He wanted to trust him and so he did.

The man moved his gaze forward once more. ‘Good,’ Shane said, small smile, ‘I do not wish to.’

They walked the rest of the way to Starbucks in silence. Ryan tried to ignore the odd stares he got from being followed by a tall man in smart, formal wear compared to his ripped dungarees and faded green shirt. An odd pair they were.

Once inside, Shane’s eyes skimmed the menu. ‘What coffee do you want?’

‘A cappuccino with whipped cream and sprinkles,’ he found himself grinning at Shane’s questioning side-eye. ‘What? I have a sweet tooth,’ he said and turned away to prevent Shane from having any say on the matter, ‘I’ll find us a spot.’ He disappeared across the café area and found them both a nice place in the corner facing the rest of the chairs, so Ryan would be able to watch anyone watching them. The café wasn’t too busy for the moment, it must have been after the lunch rush, where everything started to die down again.

A few minutes later, Shane returned with his order. He placed the cup down first, piled high with whipped cream and colourful sprinkles, and sat down in the seat opposite. Looking up after sorting out his seat, he smiled, ‘one coffee for one Ryan.’

Ryan couldn’t help smiling back and picked up his coffee for a taste. It came out a little too bitter for his liking but that was the whipped cream would be for.

Shane seemed to choke on something as Ryan put the cup down and it took him a moment to realise Shane was laughing.

‘What…?’ he said.

Shane gestured to his own mouth. ‘You got something on your..?’ he said.

‘Oh.’ Ryan wiped with the back of his hand and came back with cream on it.

When he glanced up again, Shane pointed to his nose this time.

Ryan touched that with his fingers and found more cream.

‘Please tell me you don’t have this alone,’ Shane said, thoroughly amused now.

‘Normally I do,’ Ryan said, flushing. He spied the people on nearby tables but no one had their eyes set in this direction for now. He got a tissue and wiped down his whole face just to be sure. ‘Maybe this is why I’ve no friends over here.’

‘I doubt it,’ Shane said. ‘You seem pretty pleasant enough so far.’

Ryan stared, blank expression, and then shook his head. ‘You’re definitely not like other FBI agents,’ he said.

‘You keep saying that and I’m gonna start saying you’re not like most humans,’ Shane said, dismissive. But the smile flashed across his face in no time and they both laughed.

Ryan held out his coffee to Shane. ‘You wanna try?’

Shane seemed to hesitate for a moment, raising a hand as if to say no. But, soon, the hand instead went for the cup and he brought it over to his lips. Shane pulled a face drinking it. ‘Ugh, far too sweet for me,’ he said, explaining.

‘Really? I need more sweetness; it’s _too_ bitter.’

Shane pulled another face and firmly handed the cup back to him. ‘It’s all yours, baby.’

‘Don’t call me _baby_ ,’ Ryan said and he giggled to hide his returning flush.

After a while, Shane went up to order a cookie for himself. They talked about whatever came to mind and Ryan kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, for Shane to cut the act and demand answers. But Shane did nothing of the sort and, in fact, kept on talking to Ryan like it was all he wanted to do, even shared big parts of his cookie with him.

Before he knew it, Ryan stood outside the Starbucks waiting for Shane to hand over a card with his phone number on it.

‘For when you feel you trust me enough or if you happen to need me for whatever you’d feel like you’d need me for,’ Shane said, passing over the almost all white card.

Actually, Ryan first thought it was blank for a good second before the light caught on the small gold lettering of a set of numbers, presumably Shane’s, and his first name. ‘Thanks,’ Ryan said and put the card in his pocket, against the flat side of his phone. ‘What could I need you for though?’

‘Neh, I don’t know.’

Ryan wheezed, ‘well, thanks.’

They began walking off in opposite directions. Ryan went to go about the rest of his day, however, the IKEA he wanted to visit after Home Depot had now closed. Huffing, he returned to his car to try somewhere else and soon found Shane’s figure appearing in the reflection of his car window.

He looked sheepish when Ryan turned around, phone open in one hand, the distinct wiggling green lines of a map displayed on the screen. ‘I, uh, I know I said to call me if you needed anything and this is probably going to sound stupid,’ he said, ‘but this is my first time in this town so …you wouldn’t happen to know the area? I thought I’d at least try you first before contacting my team, they’ll most likely tease me for days for this and I wanna avoid that if I can.’

One part of that statement resonated with Ryan. ‘I don’t know the area, sorry,’ he said and Shane’s shoulders sagged. ‘But wherever you need to go, I’m sure we could find it together.’

‘How about this?’ Shane said, ‘you help me find this place,’ he pointed to his phone, ‘and if it’s kinda far out, I’ll drive you back to your place and then come pick you up tomorrow to collect your car.’

‘Deal,’ Ryan said maybe a little too quickly. ‘Do you think it’s really gonna take a while to find or something?’

‘Not really,’ Shane said and peered at his phone with a frown, ‘but it’s already 7pm so—’

‘—it’s what?!’ Ryan whipped out his own phone faster than that and the screen lit up to reveal the time. ‘How did it get so late and I didn’t notice?’ he said. This was what he got for doing his shopping on a Sunday.

‘I don’t know,’ Shane said, shrugging.

If that really was the time, then Ryan had none left to visit any other places. The want to help Shane now easily outweighed his overbearing desire to finish up here, get home and possibly nap. Even though he’d only just met this man and said man had been sent to question him about aliens, Ryan couldn’t deny he wanted to help Shane. That wave of calm returned and along with it all the trust. He couldn’t deny he wanted to spend time with him, more than he already apparently had.

Realising he’d basically already agreed at this point, Ryan stepped up to Shane, ‘where is it you’re trying to go to then?’ he said, trying to spy at the map on his phone.

To his surprise, Shane handed it to him. ‘I think it’s a little way out from the city centre,’ he said and leaned over to look at it with Ryan. His shoulder brushed over Ryan’s nape briefly and he suppressed a shiver, although certainly not for the temperature. Shane was very warm.

With his thumb and fore finger Ryan pulled the map back to see if he recognised any spots or areas. A red line cut across the screen indicting Shane’s path. ‘I guess we just go here to the centre, should be the easiest part to find, and follow the path out from there,’ Ryan said.

‘I figured that,’ with his current proximity Shane’s breath tickled at the back of Ryan’s ear and Ryan exhaled as quietly as he could, running a thumb under one strap of his dungarees and adjusting them as a distraction. ‘This part here is what I’m worried about,’ he said. Moving the map with his finger, he brought it to a point where the red line seemed to wiggle off track for an inch, almost as if the rest of the map hadn’t loaded in yet.

‘Yeah that does seem a little odd.’ Ryan said, ‘is that your phone or the map?’

‘The map. I’ve tried reloading it several times.’

Any tiny inch of chill Ryan had been experiencing from the weather washed away with Shane stood next to him. He didn’t want to move, if only to avoid stepping away from Shane’s radiating body heat. ‘Like I said, we should head to the centre and just work it out from there,’ he said, ‘maybe this part of the map will look a little less weird in person.’

‘Sounds about reasonable,’ Shane said. He reached forward and retrieved his phone. A pat on Ryan’s arm, he started to walk off, ‘come on, my car is over here.’

Shaking his head, Ryan quickly thought to check he hadn’t unlocked his car yet and rushed over to catch up with Shane.

Shane’s car was, as should have been predicted, a black SUV. Ryan watched Shane jump inside and took a breath before climbing in himself. Once the doors slammed shut, the silence engulfed them. He looked to Shane who started the engine. Before setting off he brought out his phone again, unlocked it, and chucked it to Ryan.

‘Guide me, Ryan,’ he said, jokingly serious, and drove from the parking spot.

With a brazen chuckle, ‘sure,’ Ryan said to the FBI agent that had been sent to question him about his new alien friend, while now sat in said agent’s car. And still he didn’t feel uncomfortable about the whole situation, in fact the whole thing oddly amused him.

The map hadn’t been unselected, so Ryan didn’t have to faff about accidentally discovering something he shouldn’t on Shane’s phone. Zooming in, he found the names of the streets on the map and flung his head up to search about on the road before them for any names he could find there. He pointed across Shane’s eyeline, ‘head down there,’ he said, ‘it should get us to the centre a bit faster.’

‘Yep, thank you.’

Ryan let him take the turning before coming up with more directions. Shane had a look of distinct concentration on his face and it caught Ryan’s attention for a moment. In an effort not to be noticed, he shook his head hastily and returned his eyes to down the map to plan their next move.

¬

Ryan couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching him. Or at least watching the housesit. This feeling made him want to switch off all the lights and walk around in the dark, even though they already knew someone could be home. Also it would make him stupidly uncomfortable and he could already picture spooking himself on nothing. Shane’s words from early in the week swirled around in his head. He had a _team_ , a team he worked with, and they would most likely be the ones watching him now.

Ryan walked up to the window in the kitchen, gazing out on the hill, where he swore he’d seen a patterned flashing up at the top the day after Ricky arrived. Eyes scanning all scenery in sight, he searched desperately for anything like that now but came up short.

He sighed and flicked on his phone, hovering over the conversation with Shane before clicking on it. They’d been speaking a lot since parting ways at the end of last week. After getting very severely lost, Shane thought to take Ryan back to the car park to drive home himself, only for them to find the car park had closed and locked for the night. So Shane took him home and Ryan avoided the acknowledging the pit that settled in his stomach when Shane knew his address without asking.

He’d entrusted him with Ricky’s name by that point. He didn’t tell Shane much about them only that they visited usually in the evenings or early mornings, where upon arrival they’d wake Ryan up demanding food, and that they enjoyed eating icing sugar and being petted. It actually came up by accident. Ryan had mentioned the name Ricky, Shane had asked who, and Ryan had explained that was the name he’d picked for the alien, then realised he should have stopped himself. But figuring Shane had already said he’d been in contact with them, what could learning a few little things change?

Something creaked upstairs and Ryan almost jumped out of his skin. He really didn’t want to be watched by government agents right now.

A silly idea popped into his head. If he got Shane round his team might no longer see a need to keep tabs on him, they might go then and, therefore, stop watching. And Ryan also couldn’t deny he wanted to be in Shane’s company again. If not to feel that uncontrollable sense of calm wash over him once more, but also on the factor that living all the way out here got lonely sometimes.

Somehow he was yet to go back into town since their parting. Ryan kept telling himself it had been because he should have been cooking more anyways but he also did it because he wanted a backup excuse to see Shane again by asking him to drive him into town to retrieve his car. It stopped him from using Ricky as excuse, if nothing else.

Giving in, he wrote out a simple text: _hey. are you still in town?_

The response came through a few minutes later. _Yep. What do you need?_

Ryan: _i hope this isn’t strange but would u mind coming round?_

Shane: _Certainly wouldn’t. I can be there in 20 mins._

Ryan: _that would be great thanks. ur friends are starting to creep me out… maybe if ur here they’ll go away o.O_

Shane: _I doubt that._

Ryan: _XD_

As soon as Ryan clicked send on that message he stared at his phone for a long painful moment. When Shane didn’t reply he felt even worse. Maybe he hadn’t been joking, it was so hard to tell since he never used emojis, and Ryan _had_ asked Shane to come round to make him feel more safe. He figured he would just find out when Shane got here.

In almost exactly the time he said, Shane’s car crawled up the drive to Ryan’s housesit. He walked out on the porch to great him. Shane parked in silence and they met half each other half way on the porch stairs.

Even two steps up, Ryan only then managed to vaguely reach Shane’s height. He still wore his black shirt and red tie but different trousers, he wore jeans now.

Shane regarded him. ‘You okay?’

Ryan abruptly realised he’d been staring. ‘Yeah, I’m –I’m fine just a little jumpy, I guess.’

‘Can I come in?’ Shane said, gesturing up to the door.

‘Sure,’ Ryan turned around and guided him inside.

Shane took a moment by the door to brush his shoes clean before he leaned down to undo them.

Ryan watched him unlace and pop his shoes down by the door. He appeared a little less formal without them on, now standing in the housesit with no fancy trousers as well and slightly messed up hair. If Ryan squinted a little, he could pretend they were almost friends hanging out for the evening.

‘Is little Ricky in today?’ Shane said stood in the hallway.

‘No,’ Ryan said. He wiggled his toes inside his little ghost slippers, ‘and I feel any chance they had of showing up probably disappeared when you arrived.’

Shane raised an eyebrow. ‘You been telling them that I’m a big scary monster coming to take them away?’

‘No,’ Ryan said, reassuring, ‘they don’t like strangers. To be honest I sometimes feel they barely like me.’

‘Nonsense,’ Shane said. ‘Who couldn’t like you?’ When Ryan looked over to him, he had his eyes on the picture frames hung up on the wall instead.

‘Um, would you like something to drink?’ Ryan said.

‘Some water would be nice, thank you,’ Shane threw him a glance and then moved closer to the photos, scrunching up his nose in the dim light. ‘Uh, none of these are you,’ he said pointing a finger, ‘and all of them are white.’

‘This isn’t my house.’

‘Ah!’ Shane said on an open mouth. ‘That would explain …a lot of things.’

‘Things like what?’ Ryan put his hands on his hips, not liking how that sounded.

‘Just how you could afford a house like this when you’re clearly not working.’

‘Which you would know from spying on me?’ Ryan said.

‘Of course,’ Shane said, sounding dismissive. His face didn’t change and he moved closer to the pictures, despite knowing they were no longer Ryan’s.

He watched Shane for a little moment longer before heading into the kitchen. Ryan pulled one of his mugs from the cupboard and poured out some water from the filtered jug in the fridge. Returning to the corridor, he found Shane nowhere in sight.

‘Shane?’ he said, turning to the dining room. Slowly he walked over to it and suppressed a jump at suddenly finding Shane stood in the corner now eyeing the occupant’s trinkets in a glass cabinet. ‘Jesus, I swear I didn’t even hear you move around,’ Shane turned around as he spoke.

‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘People always comment on how I’m very light on my feet.’

‘For a giant,’ Ryan said, cheekily. He couldn’t help grinning from ear-to-ear and Shane soon smiled himself, exhaling a small laugh through his nose.

‘Thank you,’ Shane said and held out a hand. Ryan took a second to figure out what he meant, remembering the mug in his hand, and walked over to hand Shane his drink. He sipped it a little and returned to examining the trinkets. This family had a weird obsession with the kind of stuff only his grandparents would buy.

Ryan stood beside him, the awkwardness finally settling in. Right back when moving into this housesit, he never imagined having an FBI agent come round and stand in the dinner room without his shoes on. A very handsome FBI agent that Ryan trust more than maybe he should of. He also never imagined meeting a creature from another planet and being thoroughly confused about how they got here and why.

‘I don’t mean to break the moment,’ Shane said, voice softened against the walls of the room, ‘but I must ask.’

Ryan kept his eyes on the trinkets a second longer before glancing over. ‘Okay?’ he said.

‘Do you,’ Shane said, hesitant as he was choosing his words with great care, ‘find me trusting enough yet to talk more about what you know of Ricky?’

Ryan didn’t need to think about it, beyond surprised about that. ‘I do,’ he said and something akin to shock flashed across Shane’s face. ‘I don’t why, but I do trust you, Shane, or else I wouldn’t have asked you to come here tonight.’

He nodded and bowed his heading, clearly thinking for a moment. Ryan braced himself for the evitable list of questions Shane would fire his way and wondered if it would really be okay to answer them. But returning his gaze once more, Shane said, ‘how long would you like me to stay?’ He pursed his lips, face twitching and Ryan knew him enough by now to be able to tell he was trying to stop a smile. Maybe he thought it would make him look smug, instead of happy.

‘Honestly?’ Ryan said.

‘Always.’

Ryan shifted on his feet and the movement caused the stretching need to run up and down his arms. He raised them above his head to do so. ‘Preferable until I fall asleep,’ he said and then realised what he said.

‘I could do that.’

‘Really?’ The notion seemed to excite Ryan more than calm him down. ‘See, I don’t wanna ask for too much and make things weird,’ he had to say.

‘Whatever makes you most comfortable, Ryan. I’m here for your safety, not because you’re in trouble or anything.’

‘Yeah, but I wouldn’t want to ask that of stranger I met barely a week ago,’ Ryan tilted his head almost right back when Shane stepped closer.

‘Well, that is true. But I don’t have to _stay_ as a stranger.’

He could almost feel Shane’s breath on his cheek. A shiver ran down his spine at those words and he hoped the blush didn’t show on his cheeks, since Shane clearly meant that as a friendship and nothing more.

Anyways, regardless of if he was attracted to Shane, he needed to make sure that didn’t cloud his judgement on whether to truly trust him. Ricky’s safety came into all this just as much as his own.

‘I, uh,’ Ryan said. He thought for a minute, ‘do you like card games?’

‘I dabble from time to time,’ Shane said, expression considering. He didn’t make any indication to move away.

‘Would you like to play one now?’ Ryan being the one to step away and he headed over to the door. ‘I discovered the owner’s card deck in the living room the other night.’

Shane nodded. ‘Sure.’

‘Okay, I’ll go get it now,’ Ryan said, walking backwards. He gestured his thumbs behind him before leaving to fetch the card deck.

Alone in the other room for a second, he tried to shake away the awkwardness off his shoulders, like an invisible cloak and focus on properly evaluate all of this. But every time he tried, he just got lost in the excitement of being around him. He trusted Shane and he didn’t know why he felt so giddy around him. Alright, partly untrue, he knew exactly why he felt something around him.

Returning to the dining room and pausing in the door way, he watched Shane, sat down now at the table, and admired the way his beard looked and how the black shirt framed his shoulders and how the red tie drew the eye to his protruding Adam’s apple.

Shane glanced up and the movement brought Ryan back to the present.

He held up the deck and gave it a little shake to hopefully hide the fact he’d been staring. ‘Found it,’ he said and walked over to sit in the chair opposite him.

Shane smoothed down the table cloth on the space between them.

Ryan opened the packet and pulled out the cards. ‘Any suggestions?’ he said at pause.

‘How about a simple Go Fish to start us off?’ Shane said, offering.

¬

‘You know you can head to bed at any time, if you want?’ Shane said over the top of his cards, after Ryan’s fourth yawn in a row. They were through their fifth round of Go Fish.

‘I’m fine,’ Ryan said but he could already feel another yawn creeping up his throat. He tried to ignore Shane’s gaze and focus on his cards.

When it finally came through, Shane exhaled. ‘Ryan,’ he said putting his cards down, ‘please don’t stay up on account of me being here.’

‘I,’ Ryan started. He sighed. ‘Okay I should probably go to sleep while I still can.’

Shane held up his hands. ‘Don’t let me stop you.’

Ryan set down his cards and, taking Shane’s, began to collect them all together to put back into the packet. He deliberated on his question for moment and asked, ‘were you serious about staying until I fell asleep?’ He glanced up to find Shane looking at him with soft eyes.

‘Of course.’

Ryan exhaled and gave into the tempting the offer. ‘Alright,’ he said, the cards collected and the packet closed up, he stood. ‘I guess I’ll take you up to where I sleep.’

‘Yep.’

Heading out of the room, he felt more than heard Shane followed behind him. The man had not been lying when he said he was light on his feet. Ryan could sense his physical body heat nearby more than he could hear his feet connect with the ground.

They walked up the stairs. Ryan gestured to the bedroom opposite the one he’d chosen in the hallway.

‘You can stay in the guest room, if you wanted?’ he said. Technically his own temporary bedroom was also a guest room since he’d thought the prospect of sleeping in the owners’ own bed somewhat weird.

Shane followed the direction of Ryan’s hand and returned his gaze. ‘Thank you but that won’t be necessary. I was planning on just leaving after you fall asleep anyways,’ he said.

‘Okay,’ Ryan said, frowning at the concept. It would be easier to sleep here, but if that was what Shane planned to do, he wouldn’t stop him. He’d keep Ryan company until he could no longer be aware of it and that was all he asked.

They descended into Ryan’s chosen bedroom.

He threw a hand out towards the bed, ‘make yourself comfortable, I’ll only be a moment,’ and, upon grabbing his PJs, he disappeared into the room’s on-suite bathroom.

When he finished and reemerged, Shane had positioned a chair next to the bed and, his head down resting on his hand, was surfing his phone.

Ryan switched off the bathroom light and the bedroom’s and quickly darted over to the bed.

From the light of his phone he could see Shane look up at him and shift in his seat as Ryan climbed under the covers.

Unsure of what to do, Ryan sat up against the frame for now to deflect the awkward atmosphere. ‘You, uh, reporting in or something?’ he said, nudging his head towards the phone so Shane got his meaning.

‘Um, actually I’m on Twitter,’ Shane said with a little laugh. ‘I’m not an FBI agent all the time, Ryan.’

‘Oh,’ Ryan said, feeling a slightly stupid for implying that now, ‘what do you like to do in your space time then?’ he asked to make up for it.

‘Well, it sounds trivial, but I’m actually a great lover of hot dogs,’ Shane said. ‘This job gets me out and about to a lot of places over the country so I like to try as many different types as I can.’

‘Hey, that’s not stupid,’ Ryan said, thinking across to how his online presence allowed him to do just the same with sneakers. ‘Do you have any favourites?’ he asked.

Shane nodded, illuminated only by the light of his phone screen. ‘A few here and there.’ Something uncomfortable entered his expression, ‘I’ve eaten a couple of bad ones as well.’

‘I can imagine,’ Ryan said. They shared a sympathetic laugh. Food poisoning seemed all too common in America, if you didn’t watch where you ended up.

Shane looked to him. ‘How about yourself?’ he said, ‘what do you like to do?’

‘Collect shoes,’ Ryan said. ‘Well, sneakers, in fact. I couldn’t bring any of them here with me, but I have quite the collection back at my apartment.’ His hand itched to get his phone and show him but his sleepy eyes lidded further and further over his gaze.

Shane hummed, ‘oh, I believe you,’ he said. Something on his phone caught his attention.

Ryan needed to sleep. He scrunched up his nose and used the gap in the conversation to shuffle down into the covers. He laid on his side, though, facing Shane, ‘you just gonna watch me sleep then?’ he said.

A half smile tugged at Shane’s lips but his gaze stayed on his phone. ‘I’ll try not to make it weird.’

‘It doesn’t feel weird,’ Ryan yawned and his eyes went heavy, drifting shut. ‘You’re like a guardian angel watching over me.’

Shane huffed. ‘That statement couldn’t be more wrong, Ryan,’ he thought he heard him say and, in his sleep state, quickly disappeared down the chain of thought about how Shane couldn’t possibly mean that.

‘Watching me fall asleep will probably be boring,’ Ryan said, voice low and groggy now. ‘Are you sure you wouldn’t want to leave now and find something better to do?’

‘I have an eBook saved on my phone to read so it’s not so bad,’ Shane said. ‘I can keep watch until you’re safely on the other side.’

‘What’s it about? The eBook?’

Shane seemed to hesitate, shifting in the chair again, and when he responded it explained why, ‘whether Ben Franklin was secretly in a sex cult,’ he said.

Ryan giggled and burrowed his face in his pillow.

‘Yeah,’ Shane said laughing a little along with him, ‘I love history.’

Yawning again, Ryan listened to any noise that Shane seemed to produce, from breathing to swapping his legs over each other. The noises, along with that already calming sensation, lured his body further and further to sleep. ‘Good night, Shane,’ he said.

‘Good night, Ryan,’ Shane said and Ryan could have sworn he had a sweeter tone to his voice than usual.

¬

Ryan’s body woke itself up. Sometime around 7:36am, he couldn’t remember what time he went to bed so he had no idea what hours he’d be working off today. Groggy, he forced his eyes open with each blink and rolled over to grab his phone to help. A large dark form passed by his vision and his instincts reacted to it by screaming at him until his body fully processed what it could be.

Shane was still slumped in the chair next to the bed, his head on his hand, bearded cheek squished, deep in sleep.

It made sense now he’d woken up enough, that washy calm sensation lulled his body right back towards sleep and he sat up to prevent it. In the back of his mind, he couldn’t ignore the fact that the notion of Shane sleeping nearby him all night set him at ease more than Shane’s presence usually would. He simply wished it had been in a position a little less uncomfortable for Shane.

Hesitant, Ryan didn’t need to squint any more to pretend to see them as something like friends, not now with Shane snoring in a chair right next to him, having stayed the night like he said he wouldn’t.

Carefully as he could, he snuck out of bed and into the bathroom. He brushed his teeth, used the toilet, and got dressed. Sure enough, Shane remained silently slumped there in the chair when he got back.

Ryan walked over to him. Nothing had managed to accidentally wake him in this time so he knew he’d have to do it himself. His hair messed up in a way Ryan had to pry his eyes away from. He reached out a gentle hand and shook Shane’s shoulder. ‘Shane?’

A small sleepy moan resonated from his throat before Shane jolted suddenly and his eyes fell open on a snort. He looked up at Ryan, eyes half lidded, for a second, shook his head, and then glanced around to get his bearings. ‘What time is it?’ he said, voice groggy.

‘Uh, about 8am something,’ Ryan pulled his phone out as he spoke and it lit up to confirm his guess.

Shane’s eyes went wide. ‘Am?!’ he said and shot up in the chair, alarmingly awake now, ‘oh shit, I slept here the whole night.’ The sudden movement must have reached his head too quickly and he put an arm up against it for support. Taking a moment to recover, he looked up at Ryan again, expression the most genuine now he’d seen so far, ‘I am so sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude. They had me basically patrolling through the whole town yesterday. I guess, I was more overworked than I thought.’

Ryan dared a hand on his shoulder. ‘It’s fine, Shane,’ he said and when Shane didn’t flinch on it landing down, Ryan kept it there until Shane naturally started to stretch his body out. ‘In fact, I kinda felt a lot more safe with you in the room, if it’s not weird of me to say that?’

‘It isn’t,’ Shane said, smiling, ‘it’s good.’ Standing up he stretched full-body as well, his hands almost brushing against the ceiling. Ryan stood back. A loud click came from his back and he groaned. ‘That chair did nothing for my back though.’

‘There’s a bathroom through that door,’ Ryan pointed to the on-suite, ‘if you wanted to freshen up. You can use whatever of mine you want.’

‘Thank you,’ Shane said and he regarded Ryan in a way he couldn’t quite decipher, something along the lines of disbelief, or maybe even gratitude, ‘I think I might do that. Probably need it after sleeping in a chair all night.’

Ryan headed towards to the door to give him some space. ‘I’ll be downstairs,’ he said.

‘I may have dribbled at one point,’ Shane said, mumbling from behind him.

He turned around and started walking backwards now, arm out to avoid colliding with the door frame. ‘If you did, I didn’t see anything, don’t worry.’

‘Good,’ Shane said, ‘wouldn’t want to scare you off yet.’

Ryan paused by the door. ‘I don’t think you could do that, Shane,’ he said, honest.

Shane had his back to him but when he turned enough to reveal his head, walking into the bathroom, Ryan couldn’t miss the gentle smile on his lips.

He went downstairs and deliberated for a long minute on whether he should make Shane a cup of tea or coffee, which one he would like, and if he would even be in the mood for one if he did. The sound of that one floorboard that always managed to creaked caught his attention and he spent the rest of the time it took for Shane to appear musing over how even he couldn’t escape that one.

He smiled, hair somewhat styled and suit straightened, ‘I have to admit I struggled somewhat to what was yours and what was the home owner’s.’

‘Oh yeah,’ Ryan said, ‘I probably should have said.’

‘It was fine,’ Shane flicked a dismissive hand, ‘I found what I needed in the end.’

Ryan followed him to the door, where Shane leaned down to collect his shoes and sat gently on the chair nearby to start slipping them on. He shuffled from foot to foot working the words over in his mind before he spoke. ‘Would it be possible for you to drop me off in town?’ Ryan said.

Pausing, Shane’s head popped up and he nodded. ‘Sure.’ He returned to his shoes. ‘Your car not working then?’

‘Nope,’ Ryan said, ‘at least I hope not. I haven’t been back to it yet since we left it a week ago.’

Shane laughed a little on an exhale. Eyes still down, ‘of course you haven’t,’ he said.

‘I just hadn’t found the right moment yet.’

Finished with his shoes he stood. Shane gave him a look for a moment as if he knew what he really meant by that. But it disappeared as soon as it formed. ‘You ready to go now? I have _job things_ to do in town.’

‘Yeah, sure,’ Ryan said bringing the house keys out of his pocket.

Shane raised an eyebrow. ‘You don’t mess around.’

‘Nope,’ Ryan said, grinning. He gave them a little jangly shake.

Shane led the way outside, his car beeped on being unlocked, and he remained at the door for a second to retrieve the most stereotype cool guy FBI sunglasses ever mass produced in a corner store.

Ryan regarded him with all the disapproval and amusement Shane had cleared expected. ‘Please tell me you got them just for the job,’ he said.

‘You bet your ass, baby!’

Not even fighting the laughter, Ryan flung his head back and truly lost it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> feel free to hit me up with your thoughts, i'm happy to hear anything :3


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a little bit of ricky and then ryan gets into some large trouble
> 
> i found a good example of how i wanted [shane's beard to look](https://youtu.be/kMPPUUXYvtk?t=9)

Ryan noticed he hadn’t seen Ricky for a long while. Almost a good few days now to be precious, when normally they would show up at least once a day, and had done so since the afternoon after the crash.

Briefly, he did worry that Shane’s team had gotten to them. An unpleasant shiver coursed viciously through his system at the prospect of all that. He thought to ask Shane, if not for wanting to avoid having to go down that road with a man he trusted. He didn’t wish to put Shane in a position where he’d had to lie to him, or worse, tell the truth and Ryan wouldn’t like it. Unless he’d already lied so far. Ryan still didn’t really know where he could stand with Shane. Everything he had done so far; his actions spoke basically for themselves and yet his job title. That factor came into the mix and threw Ryan completely off track each time he thought he had everything locked down and figured out.

He walked out of the housesit and stood on the porch, breathing in the cool desert air. Evenings like this, he understood why someone could have the desire to live out here in the middle of nowhere. Against the moonlight, he spotted a sparkle in the distance and then slowly but surely, Ricky comes trotting up to the housesit.

Without a word, Ryan let them inside and closed the door behind. They don’t brush off immediately and take a moment to run a small ring around Ryan’s legs. He crouched down and held up his hand for them to rub against. ‘Where have you been huh, buddy?’ he said, although didn’t expect a coherent answer.

Ricky looked at him with their beady little eyes and squeaked in delicate communication.

Ryan set up his laptop in the dining room with his dining and the same jar of icing sugar. Ricky never seemed to eat much. They had their fill and, not long after, curled up into a small ball and fell asleep. Ryan paused for a second to admire the way the light fixture above reflected off their shiny coat.

Yawning, he pushed through this online work he needed to get down and finally called it a night. Ryan collected away all his things, threw his take out in the trash, and hoped when he came back Ricky would either be gone or at least awake. When he found neither, he sighed, hands on his hips. He seemed to have a habit of making friends with heavy sleepers these days. First Shane, and now he’d have to wake up Ricky, and who knew if they’d take it as well as Shane did.

Gently he stroked a hand over their head, in the spot he knew they enjoyed, and a small squeak rumbled through their whole frame. ‘I’m sorry, Ricky, but I can’t leave you here and I doubt you’d like to wake up to me carry you upstairs,’ he said, voice soft. He continued to stroke as they slowly woke up. ‘You haven’t been up there yet. You know you’re always welcome to explore places that I’m not around. This house ain’t mine, knock yourself out.’

Ricky popped their eyes open and regarded Ryan for a firm moment. They stood up with Ryan’s hand still resting on their frame and walked over the table to his chest. Ryan had about zero seconds of warning before they leapt onto his chest and he had to bring his arms up to catch them.

‘Woah there, dude,’ he said as their claws dug into his skin for grip, ‘you coming in for a hug or… you wanna come upstairs with me?’

Ricky squeaked but it came out low, and sleepier than usual. They punctured this by then nuzzling up to Ryan’s shoulder and making no effort to move afterwards.

Now was his turn to regard them in silence, Ryan smiled and made his way upstairs for bed with Ricky cradled in his arms. Carefully he laid them down on the bed and they spilled out across the sheet. Ryan came back from the bathroom to find them curled up on his pillow. He huffed out a small laugh but wasn’t afraid to shove them aside to make room for himself.

Neither of them had ever done something like this with each other before but everything still felt natural, like most of their interactions. Ricky really enjoyed his company, for some reason, and Ryan was truly stumped because usually animals hated him.

To stump him even further, after being shoved aside, Ricky arose, padded down the bed to where Ryan’s legs lay, patted down the duvet with shimmering paw to outline his limbs, and curled up there. So they knew they would always be right next to Ryan. He watched them do this and smiled a little before lying back for sleep.

¬

It didn’t seem like that complicated of a task but Ryan stood holding a dog bowl in one hand and jar of icing in the other, frowning as the minutes ticked on. Ricky squeaked from his feet and the sound brought him back to the present.

He shook his head. ‘Yeah, sorry, buddy. I just…’ he said. Regarding the bowl, he twisted it on a wrist. Ricky squeaked again and Ryan crouched before them. ‘Okay, I saw this and, obviously, thought of you. It’s just …I don’t know whether you’d want it or not.’ He placed the bowl down on the floor before them for inspection. It was completely silver with thin, white lettering along the rim, _Ricky_. Ryan had thought he’d been hallucinating when he first saw it.

And when he realised he wasn’t, he knew he had to buy it. So whenever they chose to show up for dinner, they’d have somewhere special to eat from.

Ricky eyed the bowl, twitching their head this way and that. They opened their mouth and out came their tongue. It slid forward into the bowl and the three prongs pushed up against the base. Ricky squeaked in the surprise and looked to Ryan.

‘Oh,’ he said. Ryan got the picture pretty quickly. Scooping a large dollop of icing onto the knife, he wiped it off into the bowl.

Ricky happily munched up the whole lot.

¬

Ryan knew eventually he’d end up in IKEA. Now here, he saw a few other things from the housesit so, like the jig pieces finally lining up, it made sense he’d find the bench here. The only real reason he had delayed it being he’d just hoped to avoid having to build the bench from pieces.

But maybe he could call up Shane and see if he would help. That thought only made this process a little less daunting. But Ryan didn’t let himself dwell on it for long because whenever he did, his heartrate shoot up.

Something still did not line up with him, regardless of the FBI status. They’d been messaging all week, moved online to make it cheaper to talk since texting became too much, but Shane hid things. Of course, being a secret agent. Yet he also went off for hours at a time and then, precise like clockwork, came straight back online, acting like no time had passed. Even more, he remembered happenings in odd detail and always knew exactly what Ryan was feeling.

He couldn’t fully connect the dots but Ryan knew enough that something didn’t add up, and that he perhaps needed to be cautious. At least for Ricky’s sake.

Ryan didn’t bother with a trolley and wound and zip his way through the maze of the store towards the garden section. He found numerous assemble yourself benches with names he couldn’t even comprehend to pronounce. The large shard of solid wood started to attract unwanted attention so he took a picture of it instead and brought that up on his phone now, potentially close to his target.

Head darting back and forth from his phone to the little pictures attached to each piece, Ryan slowly made his way along the aisle. Normally he never noticed how quiet shopping stores could be but something seemed to wash through him and, pausing his search, he took a quick longing glance around.

That something, whatever it was instinct or not, got stronger and felt like a shiver down his spine, just lacking the temperature.

Voices from an aisle over drifted in his direction. Already on some form of alert, Ryan listened in. He couldn’t make out most of what was being said but he heard words here and there, like ‘ _home_ ’ and ‘ _creature_ ’. As whoever had been talking drew to the end of the aisle, the direction of the sound indicated they’d be coming into his aisle. Their words grew louder, sentences clearer, as the seconds ticked on.

Ryan stood frozen on the spot as he waited for them to appear. It had to be nonsense, had to be everything that had already happened building up, mixing together in his mind, and confusing his logical thinking, but he could have sworn those people were talking about him.

Three people emerged at the end of the corridor, two women and one man. As if in a terrible hallucination they all looked directly at him and kept looking far longer than any normal stranger would, or should. He couldn’t believe it. A hot flush ran like insects under the skin over his nape and lower face. He still couldn’t believe it, not until they seemed to nod to each other with an unspoken _that’s him_ and began walking his way purposefully.

Ryan, caught between a rock and a hard place, didn’t know whether to run from them, as he so desperately desired, or risk believing they could genuinely be after him when his paranoia over watching out for Ricky might be the one influencing his conclusion here and actually they were normal strangers who wanted nothing to do with him. After they breached the two-metre mark, Ryan turned heeled and power walked in the other direction.

Then one of them said in a firm voice, ‘you should not run from us, Ryan Bergara.’

When he reached the end of the aisle, Ryan bolted into the next one and sure enough heard the sound of progress footfalls behind him. The air rushed into the space right up against his back. But he kept running, not looking back in case that left a part of him back far enough to get caught in their grip.

Shane’s team must have gotten tired of waiting and now they were going directly to the source for answers. He knew there had been a reason not to let his guard down as much as he’d wanted to.

Running until he was sure he’d outran them, Ryan darted over a bed in a rather unceremonious roll and fell behind it. The factor of something against his back made him feel somewhat better, meant they wouldn’t be able to sneak up on him to some extent. Fumbling, he ripped his phone out of his pocket and dialled the only number he could. Again maybe if he was here, his team would leave Ryan alone.

Shane picked up after the fifth ring. ‘Agent Madej.’

‘Shane, help me!’ Ryan said in a panic, quietening his voice more as he spoke and glancing around. No movement yet.

‘Ryan?’ Shane instantly sounded concerned.

‘Please. There’s— there’s some people after me, I don’t—’ Something caught his eyes in a reflection above him and he snapped his mouth shut. Keeping completely still he looked towards it with only his eyes. A beat and no new movement. Ryan brought the phone closer to his mouth ‘I don’t know what they want but they know who I am.’ He focused enough to remember to play dumb, instead of straight out accusing Shane’s team of harassing him. ‘They knew my name and they pointed at me and now they’re chasing me down. I don’t know what to do.’

‘Ryan, slow down,’ Shane said and it grounded him. ‘Start with where you are.’

Ryan put a hand to his chest and concentrated on his breathing. He started with the simplest thing. ‘I’m in IKEA,’ he said. ‘I was tryna buy that bench Ricky broke.’

‘I’m coming to get you, okay?’ Other sounds accompanied his voice now as Shane began to move out from wherever he was. ‘Stay on the phone with me,’ he said.

‘I will. Please hurry,’ Ryan said, not caring how desperate he sounded right now. It got pushed aside when an overwhelming sense of dread, louder than what he already felt, slide through him and suddenly it made him want to escape this spot. He dared a peak over the bed and scanned the whole area before jumping up and making his way through the various beds. ‘They’re—I don’t know where they are. Should—should I go into the bathroom or something?’ He glanced at but didn’t stop, a lockable door would be in there.

‘No, no,’ Shane cut in instantly, ‘that would only cause you to corner yourself. You need to stay out in the open. It may sound absurd, but out in the open is better, somewhere where you can run easily.’

‘Okay.’ Ryan didn’t halt his feet until he got into opaque shelving, spotting the pots and pans of the kitchen section. They met him at eye level and perhaps he would have had a weapon now.

‘Ryan, I’m still here. Talk to me, if you can,’ Shane said, urging. The sound of a car door slamming shut followed his voice. ‘Tell me what happened.’

Ryan delved further in the kitchen section. The thought of large spatulas and knives now being within arm’s length gave him a small comfort. ‘I was, uh, I was looking at benches and I heard some people talking on the aisle over from me and then I sorta processed what they were actually saying, you know? And it—it sounded familiar, it sounded to do with me. But it couldn’t have been to do with me. But when they finally crossed into my aisle, they pointed at me and started running and where I ran, they ran. I think I managed to lose them but why are they after me, Shane? I thought you just wanted to talk. Did we do something wrong?’

Even while talking on the phone he kept himself aware of the noises around him. The distant music droning above, a child crying somewhere across the store, the sound of a couple discussing amongst each other a few aisles away.

‘Ryan? Ryan, you still there?’ Shane broke through the haze.

‘Yes.’

‘I can see the IKEA now, I just have to park,’ Shane said. ‘Keep talking to me. Where are you in the store?’

‘Near the kitchen stuff,’ Ryan said. He finally stopped, threw glances this way and that and all around. Still nothing, he didn’t like that, not knowing where they were meant they could be anywhere nearby and he wouldn’t find out until it was too late. ‘Plates and cooking pots,’ he said. ‘I don’t like this. I really _really_ don’t like this.’

‘I’m parked,’ Shane said and it helped to know, somewhat. ‘I’m heading in now. I’m gonna hang up so I can move faster. Stay where you are, Ryan, okay? But call me back if you have to move.’

‘I will,’ Ryan said.

Instantly he felt boxed in. Time passed at the slowest he’d ever felt it. The adrenaline and the panic all bubbled up inside of him. He couldn’t keep still and fiddled incessantly with the pockets of his dungarees.

That couple from a few aisles over rounded the corner and appeared. They stopped abrupt in their tracks, the second they laid eyes on Ryan and gave an awkward glance at each other. The one woman shrugged, while the other woman laughed it off. He must have looked a real state.

Ryan ducked his head down, trying not to let it get to him. Shane couldn’t get here fast enough.

Speak of the devil, a sound that couldn’t be anything else but Shane’s smart shoes on the store floor drifted into his range. Alerted, he glanced about and despite what Shane said moved out to meet him half way. He left the thinner corner shelving to get into the more larger distinct rows, following the sound of Shane’s shoes. Shoving his phone into a pocket on his dungarees, he jogged with both hands to the first long aisle.

A tall figure at the other end immediately turned to look his way. It was him.

‘Shane!’ Ryan called out with his arm outstretched, the relief even allowing him to smile.

He remembered getting half way down the aisle when his feet fell out from under him. The feeling of impact took a noticeable second to kick in and then pain shot through his body right down to the bone.

‘Ophf!’ Whatever Ryan collided with collapsed behind him and he fell to the ground like a ragdoll as the contents of the shelve spilt out onto the floor. The impact slammed into his hands and backside sending a sharp jolt into the rest of his frame. Vision gone black, he could do nothing but crumble down completely onto the ground, momentarily paralyzed.

A scream ricocheted off the ceiling. He felt pieces of plastic under his palms as he used all his remaining strength to push himself upright. Dizzy, Ryan opened his eyes long enough to watch Shane raise his leg and round house kick the man across the chest.

More parts of the shelving unit crumbled behind him and he groaned in pain as bits hit him on their way down. The ground fell from under him again. For a few seconds, he passed in and out of consciousness. Or at least it felt like a few seconds. It unsettled his stomach.

Eventually a gentle hand touched his shoulder and rolled him onto his back. Ryan went to protest, when Shane’s voice filled his eardrums. ‘Ryan? Ryan?! Fucking hell, are you okay?’ He sounded panicked in a way Ryan had never heard from him before. ‘Please be okay, _please_.’ Fingers brushed across his face. A hand cupped his cheek.

Barely a breath in his lungs, his voice came out as a mere whisper. ‘Shane…’ Ryan pried his eyes open to find Shane crouched in front of him.

His face lit up with relief and he reached for Ryan. ‘I’m here, _I’m here_ ,’ he said, pulling Ryan into his arms. ‘I’m going to get you out of here. I’ll keep you safe. Stay with me.’

Ryan’s eyes closed themselves of their own accord and he groaned at the pain of being moved. Shane shifted him further into his lap, got an arm under his legs and then suddenly all the noise around them cut out. The smell of burnt ozone like that of a fresh thunderstorm smothered his nostrils. He became aware of a black ceiling above him, lower than what the IKEA store had been and then he began to be lowered on a soft surface.

A bed.

Shane brushed the hair back from his face, fingers lingering on his cheekbone. ‘Ryan, we’re away from them. You’re safe now,’ he said and crouched next to the bed. His knees clicked. ‘Talk to me.’

Ryan tried to speak and it got caught in his throat. Coughing, he tried again. ‘Where are we?’ he said very croaky.

‘It’s just a safe house, somewhere safe. Lie here, keep still, and I’ll be right back.’

‘Okay,’ Ryan said, trying to get his eyes to stay open. Shane rose up and moved away from the bed. But he extended a hand last minute and pinched the tip of Shane’s sleeve. ‘Wait, how did we get here? We were in IKEA.’ Shane turned back and crouched before the bed once more, however, this time Ryan saw his eyes. His heart thundered against his chest like caged bird. ‘Shane, your …eyes.’ They were completely pitch black. ‘Why..?’

‘Oh shit, yeah,’ Shane said, ducking his head. He brought it back up, eyes still black, and a tiny smile spread across his lips. ‘Sorry I forgot it does that when I teleport. Have to switch it back.’

‘I… What-what are you?’ Ryan tried to lean up to move away but it hurt too greatly, he settled for shimming his body away. Shane let him go.

‘I might as well say it now you’ve found out,’ he said, the smile remaining on his lips but mixed with his solemn gaze and it told Ryan he was nowhere near amused about this. More like worried and scared. Shane took a breath and said, ‘I’m a demon, Ryan.’

‘A demon?’ Ryan said automatically. Unable to tell if he felt fear right now or something else – why would he feel anything else but fear? – he continued to shift away across the bed up into the pillows. Shane continued to let him. The pain soon became too much and he had to stop. Those complete black eyes seemed to stare at him all over. Releasing abruptly, he said, ‘why does that lead to everything making so much sense now?’ The vibe that Ryan couldn’t pin down about him, that hesitation in his trust like something didn’t quite fit, suddenly all rose to the surface.

Shane exhaled on a nervous laugh. ‘I could be less good at hiding it than I thought.’

‘This is …weird. You’re a…’ Ryan couldn’t even say the word yet. ‘But you’ve been helping me?’

Shane appeared offended, his face fell. ‘Do you just assume anyone who’s not human is bad? We’re not innately evil beings, Ryan,’ he said, frowning. ‘Some of us just wanna make enough bucks to get by.’

The silence didn’t fit well between them and it reminded Ryan of his pain. The lamps illuminating the room reflected off Shane’s smooth black eyes and he had to look away.

Eventually, ‘this is a lot of information to take in at once,’ Ryan said to his feet.

‘It’s okay,’ Shane said. A pressure pushed down on the bed and Ryan glanced over to see him reach out a hand. The finger tips brushed against his arm.

Ryan didn’t reach back but he didn’t move away again either.

Retreating, Shane ran the hand through his hair and licked his dry lips. ‘Um, Ryan, uh,’ he said, ‘it might sound bad, but I really have to go. I’ve got to sort out what happened at IKEA. Wait here. Make yourself at home or whatever you feel like. I’ll be right back I promise, twenty minutes max.’

He rose up and Ryan followed the movement with his head. ‘Okay,’ he found himself saying again. ‘Then you’ll explain everything.’

‘Yeah, anything,’ Shane said and stepped back. ‘Anything for you, Ryan.’ Dark smoke collected behind his back, almost in the shape of wings, and then suddenly he disappeared right before Ryan’s eyes in the click of a second, leaving only small smoke wisps.

Ryan was now alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> most of the next chapter is actually kinda written so i might get it out some time soon, or i might take forever cos writing is hard :)
> 
> it's gonna be the smut chapter btw, which is why it's already plenty written already before i finished this one :P
> 
> if you’re like me and enjoy visual cues then Shane’s panicked voice sounds like what he does here in [this video](https://youtu.be/K1oxLhsETWk?t=79), it’s a good song


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sooooooooooo i had my dissertation over xmas and that kinda took over my life but here have almost 8k worth of a chapter :P

He’d lifted a whole bench with one arm, Ryan really needed to be more aware of how obvious this all was. He laid there, simply staring at the ceiling for a couple minutes after he’d watched Shane disappear— no, teleport away? That had been the word Shane had used, right? He’d teleported him away from IKEA to his safe house and then teleported back again to IKEA. It hurt to think about all this properly, so Ryan waited another few minutes for his heartrate to lower.

Shane was a demon.

The man he’d been talking to for the past few weeks was a supernatural creature with black eyes and wings and supernatural powers. Ryan sighed, fighting the bile rising at the back of his throat. Okay, he needed to stop thinking about it.

Trying to sit up, a crippling sharp pain exploded across his chest. He groaned and immediately laid back down, hands on his stomach. Giving it a couple of seconds later, he tried again and got the same results. He settled for rolling onto his side to push himself up instead, which still hurt but with slightly less intensity.

Currently, the room remained lit by the single bedside lamp. Ryan looked around for a switch on the wall but found nothing. He looked up and saw in fact there were no lights on the ceiling. The thing he’d originally mistaken for a light appeared to be some sort of ventilation tube. He’d seen one like it on a ship once, they were there to stop a person from suffocating when the all doors closed.

 _This room has all black walls and Shane thought it was appropriate to not include lights in the fucking ceiling, what kind of safehouse is this_? _Cause it looks highly suspicious not to mention dumb as hell_ _,_ Ryan thought. The pun – of _as hell_ and Shane being a demon – didn’t occur to him, but standing up gave him pain as well.

At the very least the bathroom had lights. It was the only door in the room, however, which did not bode well, once he realised. Ryan waddled inside to try and check himself over in the mirror. From what he could feel with his hands, there didn’t appear to be any damage to his face, neck, and what showed under his shirt collar, but he needed a visual check just to be sure …if only Shane had put a mirror in here.

Ryan searched the entire bathroom to the extent that he felt comfortable invading Shane’s privacy – safe house or not, it was his courtesy as a guest not to snoop – and found nothing, not even a handheld one. He huffed, but only as much as his chest would presently allow.

He returned to the bedroom area and continued his search of the place, mostly to see this side of Shane. A part of him figured, if Shane took him here, it could be because he currently resided here himself while he was in town, or at least decorated it, so perhaps it would be a chance to get to know him better. Ryan didn’t know how safehouses worked. Even if thinking about what Shane was still sent a cold chill through his body, he found that he didn’t want to give up on his friend as of yet.

The room had a bed, dresser, and two bedside tables. As per his ruling as a guest, Ryan didn’t rifle through the drawers and he’d only opened the cupboards in the bathroom to check whether a mirror either resided on the other side or a handheld one was somewhere in there. It had been empty, so he didn’t find out much. The only object in the room other than the physical furnishings, were an unopened box of tissues on the bedside table and a small plastic statue of a dog on the dresser cabinet, badly pained with red eyes. Something about it screamed to Ryan Shane Madej and he pulled a face when getting within a metre of it. The pain in his chest stopped him from bending down to get eye level, however, and he didn’t want to touch in case... Ryan didn’t know how curses worked either.

Exploration done, the boredom pushed its way into his headspace and along with it came other conclusions.

He needed to find Ricky. If those FBI agents had come for him then someone would most likely be going after Ricky as well. The only problem with that was they always came to him and he had no idea where they went when they stopped visiting. It must have been somewhere out in the desert, a cave maybe. Or maybe even the opposite, and they disappeared into the deep innerworkings of the nearby town. He would get the answers he needed from Shane here and then head straight back to the housesit to find any signs of Ricky, ultimately with or without Shane.

In all honesty, Ryan still didn’t know what to think of him. The mere factor of Shane being an FBI agent had put him in this mess today, demon or not. His team had come for Ryan and they probably did so because he’d been talking to Shane too much.

Well that wasn’t entirely true, Ricky crashing into his front yard would probably have been the main reason they’d gone after him.

With the initial shock of the whole situation finally dying down, he could really think. Ryan found that no matter what he ran through in his head, he was willing to give Shane a chance to explain things, just one. His actions so far did speak for themselves and everything he’d done for Ryan had been in terms of his protection, even if he was a supernatural creature. He liked that from Shane and he wanted more, the overwhelming comprehension of that fact refused to be ignored.

In perfect timing, a puff of smoke popped into the room and Shane appeared. _Speak of the devil and thou shall appear_ , Ryan thought appropriately.

‘Ryan?’ Shane said, looking around, expression alarmed. After blinking a good few times presumably to hid his black eyes, he spotted Ryan in corner and gave a nervous smile when their eyes met. ‘Hey,’ Shane said. He took a step forward and started on a new breath, ‘Ryan, look, I’m really sorry. I never wanted you to find out who I am like this. I guess you could say I was scared, but then again who wouldn’t be? I just didn’t know how to bring it up or even ease you into a subject like this.’ He gave a breathy sigh, full of nervous optimism. Ryan watched it dwindle like a candle until it almost went out. ‘I hope you’re not scared right now,’ Shane said, more serious, ‘if you are, I can drop you off home and leave you alone. I want you to be safe and okay and…’ the thought trailed from his mouth as he clearly started to worry it wouldn’t be enough no matter what he said.

Ryan picked up where he left off. ‘Shane, um…’ he said, ‘this is a lot to process at once but I don’t want you to leave.’

The relief was visible on Shane’s face but he didn’t speak yet, giving Ryan the time needed to collect his thoughts.

Ryan opened his mouth and closed it several times. ‘I, uh, I just think… I think I just need a few things explained to me,’ he said.

‘Okay,’ Shane nodded and moved closer. ‘Ask away.’

‘You’re really a demon?’ He needed to hear him say it.

‘I’m really a demon,’ Shane said.

The words shook Ryan’s stomach acid and he fought the urge to throw up. Even clutching at his chest with a light grip triggered his pain, but it worked well as a distraction. He turned away and walked over to the end bedpost for some physical support. Although when he glanced up again, he realised this put him much closer to Shane.

Shane stood almost a head above him, which Ryan couldn’t help noticing nearly every time he looked at him. Shane’s head practically brushed up against the ceiling.

‘Where is this place?’ Ryan asked.

Shane shifted about awkwardly, shoved his hand in his pockets. ‘Underground,’ he said to the floor.

‘What?’ Ryan’s eyes instantly darted up to the vent over his head. ‘How far?’

‘Only about three feet or so.’

‘What location?’ Ryan asked next.

‘Let’s just say, somewhere very far away from any large bodies of water,’ Shane said and the tiny laugh they both let out eased the tension somewhat. ‘This is all to make it so only I can get here by teleportation,’ he continued on, ‘but you never know with water and how it likes to leak into everything.’

‘Certainly a useful safehouse then,’ Ryan said. He needed a distraction from this pain. ‘What did you do at IKEA?’ he asked next.

‘Sorted out a witness to the scene and had a word with the store owner,’ Shane said. ‘I am an FBI agent after all.’

‘You sorted out a witness..?’ Ryan said with a frown. Something about that didn’t quite settle right.

Shane shook his head and held up his hand in defence. ‘A small conversation with them to find out their viewpoint of the situation and then I choose an appropriate response to dissolve that,’ he said, explaining.

This didn’t immediately ease Ryan. ‘So what did you do to ease it this time?’ he said.

‘The guy actually concluded it might be an FBI matter,’ Shane said, ‘and that played into my favour. He had that whole “it’s all a conspiracy” persona and promised to keep it a secret, saying it was “all cool here, dude, don’t worry.”‘ He did a silly voice presumably to impersonate the witness.

‘And you just left him with that?’

‘With what?’ Shane said, frowning.

‘You didn’t do any more like arrest him or threaten him? What if he didn’t actually keep quiet?’ The pain continued to spread across his breath with each breath but not breathing also hurt.

‘You’d be surprised how many people I’ve spoken to who are like this, Ryan. It’s very common.’

‘And they often keep their word in the long run?’

‘Yep,’ Shane said. Although he looked doubtful after a moment, ‘at least as far as I’m aware they do.’

‘Huh. This is why a quarter of people believe aliens regularly abduct others for experiments,’ Ryan said and tried to laugh. ‘Because you let them see shit like that and then leave them thinking it’s real.’ The pain came so sharp this time, he put his whole fist around the metal pole of the bedframe and squeezed. Still increasing with each breath, he tried to hide it but Shane picked up on his discomfort as quickly as he figured he would. Maybe his demon powers even helped.

He appeared by Ryan’s side but didn’t make a move to reach out a hand for him. ‘Ryan, what did you do— um, are you okay?’ he asked, the worry on his face bleeding into concern.

Ryan didn’t bother to lie. ‘Yeah, my chest hurts a little,’ he said, an understatement. It felt like someone was stabbing his lung with each new breath.

‘Sit down on the bed and let me see,’ Shane said. He stepped out the way and moved over to the side of the bedframe.

Ryan followed around carefully. He tried lowering himself down but the pain became almost unbearable and when Shane rushed to grab his arm and shoulder, he didn’t stop him. Together they lowered him down onto the mattress. ‘I think I bruised my chest but it’s starting to get a little hard to breathe,’ Ryan said, explaining.

‘That didn’t look to me like just a bruise,’ Shane countered. His hand lingered near where Ryan’s fist had now bunched up his shirt under his dungarees. ‘May I?’ he said, eyes darting to-and-thro from Ryan’s hand to his face for permission.

Ryan wanted to stay hesitant, although he appreciated Shane’s ask for consent first. Nothing felt any drastically different between them after all this time he’d spent looking, so he decided to relent. ‘Sure,’ he said and removed his hand.

Shane placed his palm down over that spot and pulled the whole hand straight back again to place it down on a spot nearby. He did this a couple of times and it took Ryan a second to cue in on the fact he was attempting to make his examination less painful. Finally, Shane put his palm down on the original spot and pressed down very slowly, gaging Ryan’s reaction. After a minute he removed his hand entirely and said, ‘your rib is broken.’

‘What?!’ Ryan said rather quickly and the sudden inhale of breath made his chest hurt again. ‘Ow,’ saying that also added to his pain, so he gave out a much quieter, ‘ow, ow.’ Tensing, he waited for the pain to die down a little before speaking again. ‘Your demon senses tell you that?’ he asked.

‘No need,’ Shane said. He put his hand down on the spot where the pain came out strongest. ‘I can find it with my hand. You should feel it,’ he pushed down his fingers with a very small but quick amount of pressure, ‘ _just there_.’

Glittering pain shot across his left lung.

‘Ow!’ Ryan couldn’t shove his hand away in time before Shane darted it back himself. He clearly hadn’t meant to do that.

‘Sorry,’ he said, now full of guilt. He was using that voice Ryan heard when he first got hit in IKEA. ‘I was tryna show you but I shouldn’t have pushed down so hard. Human pain has always been a concept I’ve struggled with.’ Shane hung his head low and fiddled awkwardly with the space of bedsheet between them. Something about him made Ryan think he wanted to comfort him physically, his entire trajectory pointed in Ryan’s direction, but he fought back the urge, probably to avoid hurting Ryan again. ‘Are you alright?’ he asked eventually, eyes still down.

Ryan decided to change the subject. ‘I guess this makes sense,’ he said and Shane’s head popped up, ‘I got knocked back at one point, I think.’

‘I watched that guy hit you straight on the centre of the chest. I thought he’d killed you,’ something sharp flashed across Shane’s face and he cast his eyes down once more. ‘But if it’s just a broken rib that’s no problem.’ He really did have a bad concept of human pain if he thought that, but then Shane continued on. ‘If you’re okay with it, I can heal you,’ he said gently and gave a small smile. ‘It would just—it would require you to remove your shirt. Since I can’t heal through clothing and I give off an energy that could stain. It’d be more comfortable as well since you wouldn’t have to hold it up.’

Despite all they’d been through in such a short amount of time, they both knew there was more to it than that. Ryan knew if he said no, Shane would work out another way to help him. The man had come gallivanting to his housesit when he briefly mentioned being alone made him uneasy, so even if after saying he never wanted Shane to touch him again, Shane would still attempt to offer some help to him. There he was now, asking for permission and Ryan felt ready to give it. ‘If you help me take it off, then okay,’ he said.

Shane looked surprised. Of course he did. Recovering quickly, he shuffled closer. ‘Alright.’

Ryan took the lead and unhitched his dungaree hooks with one hand. It flopped down either side of him. Keeping his left arm down seemed the best cause of action to keep the pain low. He shimmied his shirt to his left shoulder and now was where Shane could come in. ‘If you just,’ he lifted his sleeve with his other hand, ‘keep this up, I’m gonna try and get my arm through slowly,’ he said.

‘Got you,’ Shane brought his hands up and lifted the sleeve almost exactly like Ryan had.

All set, carefully Ryan shuffled as far to the side as his collar would allow and raised his arm to pull it through. He tensed a good couple of times and moaned the whole while but Shane didn’t say anything. When the arm was finally free, he breathed a sigh of relief and that also hurt.

Shane let go of the shirt almost immediately and Ryan managed to pulled it over his head with one hand. A slight cold breeze tickled his chest making him very aware of his nipples.

Now revealed, the bruising of the broken rib appeared far worse than he ever could have imagined, a dark spot bleeding out across skin, painful to look at let alone feel. He set the shirt down on the spot next to him and turned to Shane for the next cause of action.

But he had his eyes averted yet again and Ryan couldn’t ignore the red flush staining his cheeks. Could Shane be embarrassed right now? But this had been his idea to begin with. Yet with Ryan actually shirtless, it must have hit him what this actually could mean and so he was nervous.

In a bold flush of nerves, Ryan reached forward, took Shane’s hand in his own, and brought it up to his chest, right over the bruise. ‘Heal away then,’ he said and failed to hide the jump he made at how surprisingly hot Shane’s palm was. Warm fingers spread over sensitive skin and he felt almost winded. It temporary helped with the pain.

Wide eyed, Shane recovered in the way he always did, in that he didn’t. After a minute, he put his focus on his hand instead, clearing his throat and widening the fingers. ‘Alright hold still, I don’t believe this should sting since none of the animals I’ve ever done it on have reacted badly,’ he said. The palm hovered right with the surface of the skin and for the longest second nothing happened.

Then first the frontal pain disappeared, the one coming from skin and muscle and not the broken bone underneath, then a prickly warmth spread through Ryan’s chest, just on the pleasant side of pins and needles. He let out a weak whimper at the relief of the bone fusing back together and found he liked watching Shane almost jump out of his skin at the sound, his flush growing redder and redder as he forced his eyes to stay down. Shane kept his hand against Ryan’s chest until a light glow began to emulate from his skin and with it came more warm, sparkly tingles across Ryan’s upper body.

It nearly reached all the way to the tip of his nose from the inside before finally dissipating. Shane began to move away.

Without thinking, Ryan snapped up Shane’s wrist to keep him there.

‘Uh, Ryan, it should be healed now—’ he blurted out, words fumbling over top of each other on his tongue.

‘Can you check up here as well?’ Ryan brought Shane’s hand up to his bare shoulder, ‘I think I felt some discomfort up …here,’ he said. He had no idea how his voice came out so level when he was sure he felt more nervous than Shane.

Shane who stared at him with the same wide eyes he’d had for the last couple of minutes or so, pupils blown even wider that it made them appear like they were already turning black. He lingered for just a second and then Ryan felt fingertips brush over his collarbone. Wetting his lips, ‘all clear,’ Shane said, Ryan’s grip still on his wrist.

Ryan’s heart beat so fast right against the front of his chest, he wouldn’t be surprised if his skin was pulsating. ‘There also isn’t a mirror in here so I think there’s a bruise on my face… just here,’ he said. Pulling Shane’s hand this time brought his whole body with it and abruptly their faces were now barely an inch apart.

‘I think you’re fine,’ Shane said, so close his breath ghosted over Ryan’s cheek. He didn’t even check his face.

Ryan remained completely frozen. He looked up with only his eyes but Shane’s gaze was down at his lips.

‘Ryan,’ he said suddenly, ‘would it be okay if I— um, I mean would _you_ be okay if I kissed you?’

Ryan swallowed. ‘I was, uh, hoping on it,’ he said, somehow still with a clear voice.

Shane didn’t waste any more time and shortened what little distance remained between them.

The hand placed on his face moved to cup his chin and Ryan leant up into the kiss. Compared to all the experiences his body had been through today nothing matched this. It had been a long time since he’d kissed someone and he’d forgotten how soft someone’s lips could feel against his own.

But within the next few seconds, Shane pulled away. He didn’t say anything, however, simply regarded Ryan, a black colour spreading within his eyes presumably against his control. Whatever he was searching for, he seemed to find it to some degree and leaned back in.

His nervous wreck of a demeanour quickly started to fade away as he brought another hand up to Ryan’s face and tugged him closer. He pulled back for another brief second to say, ‘climb into my lap?’

Ryan groaned in encouragement and pushed straight back into the kiss. Shoving his legs under himself, he leaned up further into Shane’s hands and manoeuvred one leg over Shane’s thighs.

Shane moved his hands from cupping Ryan’s face to gripping Ryan’s shoulder blades. He trailed kisses up his neck and along his jawline. ‘You have no idea what you to do me,’ he said, mouth against skin. The kisses turned gentle, but still hungry. He gave a peck on the end of his jaw, ‘so pretty,’ another on his cheek, ‘and handsome,’ and then on his forehead.

‘Shane,’ Ryan said, flushed. He had been under someone else’s direct attention like this before but not for a very long time. He hoped his blush didn’t come across as too much. However, the smirk slipping across Shane’s mouth said otherwise. And he would be one to talk from his actions a few minutes ago. Not being allowed to think on it long, though, Shane hoisted Ryan’s thighs up against his sides and then stood up.

Immediately, Ryan flung his arms around Shane’s shoulders and hooked his ankles.

Shane took it as the opportunity to shift his hands to his ass and lower back instead. He chucked Ryan up and down for a better grip.

The movement resulted in his rapidly-forming semi brushing against Shane’s stomach through his dungarees and Ryan let out a moan unintentionally.

Shane chuckled and pulled back to meet his gaze. ‘That find the right spot for you, Ryan?’ he said.

‘I—’ Ryan could barely speak. His eyes flashed down to Shane’s lips and he playfully flicked at Shane’s nose. ‘Please tell me this is all _your_ strength and not any of the supernatural stuff?’

Shane laughed deep from the chest. He knelt on the bed and dipped Ryan, much to his shocked reaction. ‘A magician doesn’t reveal his secrets, baby,’ he said, even throwing a wink in there.

Grinning from ear to ear, Ryan would smack him if he didn’t need to hold on for dear life right now, as to avoid falling back on the bed.

‘Hold tight,’ Shane said, the only warning before he let go and used his hands to crawl up.

Ryan squeezed his thighs together on instinct and breathed a sigh of relief when his back slowly got lowered onto the sheets. ‘That was exactly as hot as you wanted it to be,’ he said.

Shane said nothing, merely chuckling again and nuzzling up for a kiss.

He took both of Ryan’s wrists and brought them up above his head, so his chest arched outwards.

Shane held him there with only one hand over both wrists, and then brought his lips down to Ryan’s now flush chest and began trailing them over his ribs.

Ryan soon realised, however, that whatever pinned him down wasn’t one of Shane’s large hands anymore, since they both appeared to be sliding down his bare sides towards his hips. Ryan tilted his head and looked all the way up to find his wrists pinned down by nothing. It took a moment to sink in. ‘Wait! You have telekinesis?’ he said, twitching under the ticklish brush of Shane’s lips, ‘hey that’s not fair!’

Shane smirked and rested his chest on Ryan’s sternum, ‘if you want me to let you go, you only have to say the word, Ryan,’ he said.

Ryan regarded him with narrowed eyes. He didn’t want to give him the satisfaction, but he also didn’t want Shane to let go. Saying nothing, he turned his gaze back up to the ceiling and exhaled when he eventually felt Shane’s lips begin moving over his skin once more.

Shane travelled all the way up to a nipple and nipped at the skin, hands playing at the place where his dungarees still clung to his hips. Wordlessly Ryan lifted his hips and pictured the eyebrow raise probably on Shane’s face right now. As predicted, he felt his broad hands massage at his sides before Shane slid the garment down his thighs, then all the way off.

Ryan glanced down to see himself nude and fully hard in front of Shane, who still remained in his usual clothes. He slotted himself between Ryan’s bare legs and the smile he gave was warm.

Gliding his fingers over it just on the less side of tickling, Shane seemed to find the rib that had been broken. Leaning down, he kissed the spot, ‘all nice and healed,’ he said.

‘Thanks to you,’ Ryan added.

Shane hummed approvingly, head still down, and kissed that spot again. He kissed further up towards Ryan’s neck, a feather light trail across the skin. A warm hand wrapped around Ryan’s shaft and started pumping.

Ryan stuttered on his next breath and soon disappeared into a twirl of pleasure. ‘Hey, Shane, not that I’m not enjoying this,’ he said, ‘but you could at least give me something here and maybe, you know… take off your shirt.’

‘Certainly,’ Shane said without resistance and leaned back onto his knees. With a single hand, he loosened his red tie a little as so not to undo the knot and brought the whole thing over his head. He regarded Ryan for a second before looping the tie over Ryan’s head. He tightened it back up until it rested nicely right up against his throat.

It had the desired effect. Ryan expected the fabric to be cold for some reason but instead found the lingering warmth of Shane’s body heat. Biting his lip, he watched Shane undoing each button of his shirt, not really making a show of it, but still nice to watch nonetheless as more of his bare skin came into view, before he spread it open and slid it off. ‘This enough for you, Ryan?’ he said teasing, fling the shirt down on the floor next to them.

Ryan said nothing.

Shane possessed the good figure of someone who did moderate exercise that most likely came with the job yet wasn’t super toned. Ryan liked his broad shoulders and the bend of the muscle in his arms.

Shane leaned back down. Now that he was shirtless, Ryan badly wanted to touch him, the expanse of bare skin so readily available. Lips caressed his neck again and a bold hand snaked all the way down to his cock.

Ryan shivered at the contact. Groaning, ‘Shane, can I have my hands back, please?’ he said.

‘Sure,’ Shane immediately obliged without any extra movement needed.

The pressure on Ryan’s wrists released and his arms flopped down to his sides.

Just in time as Shane began stroking him and he clung to his back in desperation, letting the feeling take over his whole body. Eventually, Shane brought his head back and kissed him.

Ryan’s hands shot straight to Shane’s face to pull him closer, their chests now flush against each other, the silk tie squirming between them, still warm against his throat.

Shane pumped his fist up and down a few more times before he withdrew back again. Remaining close, he used their interlaced bodies as leverage to lean over towards the night stand. ‘I know, I know. Just let me just get something to help, okay?’ he said as explanation and Ryan heard the sound of a drawer being pulled open.

‘You have lube in a safe room?’ he guessed and Shane resurfaced with exactly that.

‘Okay, it’s not technically a safe room,’ he said with a shrug, uncapping the bottle and pouring some on his hand. ‘It’s more like …just my room.’ He poured some directly on Ryan’s cock as well and Ryan jolted at the abrupt cold touch. Shane took note, ‘it’ll warm up in no time, don’t worry,’ he said, leaning back in.

‘You took me back to your own room for safety,’ Ryan said. He searched out the bottle himself, taking it from Shane’s hand and not letting him discard it on the night stand. He went straight for Shane’s fly. Shane did nothing to stop him and watched as Ryan undid his jeans. ‘I thought you said this was a place you could only reach with your “demon teleportation,”‘ Ryan said. Once having pulled Shane out, he poured some lube on his own hand.

‘This is correct,’ Shane’s all black eyes caught the reflection of the lamp light for a brief moment, ‘that’s why it’s my room.’ He waited until Ryan was ready and recaptured his lips.

They stroked each other for a good while. Ryan got used to the feel of Shane in his hand and the way he felt on his own cock. A buzzing formed in his belly and Ryan could no longer keep his hips still, rocking them back and forth to get at more friction.

Shane moved his mouth to Ryan’s ear, ‘you getting close, baby?’

Ryan instantly giggled. Shane used a silly charming voice, which he definitely couldn’t take seriously in their current predicament, like someone trying a cowboy accent for the time. ‘Are _you_?’ he said and breathed in on a whine.

‘Possibly. Oh, but it sounds like you are, sweetheart,’ Shane said, still in the silly voice.

But despite it, Ryan still couldn’t help being turned on a little with Shane right in his ear, lips so close they brushed against his skin, the tie a warm reminder up against his throat, and whatever his hand did felt amazing. He twisted at the wrist just so and Ryan’s next giggle quickly dissolved into a groan.

Ryan squirmed his hips, other hand white-knuckled on Shane’s back. ‘Are you close?’ he said.

‘I think watching you go over the edge will get me there,’ Shane said right into his ear. ‘That’s it, Ryan, just let the feeling take over, let go, I got you.’

Ryan moaned, the buzzing in his chest intensified. He moved his hand to grip something easier, like the nape of Shane’s neck and the sheets shifted at his side. Ryan glanced down to see the hand Shane had on the bed curled into a fist. ‘I’m so close,’ he almost whispered, ‘Shane, a little fast if you wouldn’t ah—mind?’

Silent now, Shane pumped his fist nearly twice as fast and Ryan gasped. He squeezed Shane’s nape as the buzzing in his belly inched closer and closer. Shane took his earlobe into his mouth and bite down.

Tipping his head back, which shifted Shane’s tie flush against his skin, Ryan tumbled over the edge. A moan escaped his gaping mouth. He tried to maintain his own pumping, despite the release, and sensed Shane slide down to his shoulder, biting down there as well as he tensed and came himself. His teeth seemed sharper than he expected, with four digging in further than the rest.

Ryan only stopped when Shane whined and batted his hand away.

A sweet prickly tingle spread out from his shoulder where the bite resided, but an inspection revealed Shane hadn’t broken the skin. He smiled up at Shane and stroked a thumb under his eye as the blackness retreated away into the iris.

Dopey, Shane smiled back and hummed, leaning in for a simple kiss.

¬

Ryan laid on the bed with Shane still between his legs, running a gentle hand up and down Shane’s back, occasionally diving into his hair, where he’d earn a small content sigh. He stuck to the one hand, however, because the other was dirty. With that notion in mind, ‘we should probably shower,’ he said after a few more minutes. Their mess was beginning to solidify and he could feel the silk tie still between them starting to get clammy from the sweat.

Shane mumbled, ‘not moving,’ his voice coming out muffled from he had his mouth half-squished against Ryan’s chest.

‘I am willing to admit you’re very comfy.’ Ryan ran his hand through the short strands of his hair again.

Shane shrugged one shouldered, ‘I aim to please.’

‘And warm?’ He tilted his head up to ask, ‘how does that work?’

Shane must have sensed the moment because he moved his head up as well, shifting onto an elbow. His hair stuck up in pleasantly in odd places, even his beard looked like it needed a good brush through. ‘I have a core hotter than a human,’ he said.

‘Really?’

‘Yours has to be, I believe, ninety-eight-point-six degrees,’ Shane said, thinking. ‘I’m running at about a hundred-and-twenty-something.’ He pointed a finger at his chest.

‘That’s hot.’

Shane gave a sleepy, surprised smile. ‘Why, thank you. It’s not my only trick,’ he said with a head bounce and moved the hand from his chest to begin playing with his tie on Ryan’s chest. ‘There’re a few ways I can affect humans too. You’ve seen a couple of them.’

‘Is your ability to give me a great orgasm on the list?’

Shane snorted out a soft laugh, eyes still on the tie, the exhale tickling at Ryan’s ribs. ‘No, but maybe it should be,’ he said getting the words out through his chuckle. He finally looked up to meet Ryan’s gaze, ‘I ain’t even gotten started though,’ he said and winked.

Ryan felt like a deer caught in the headlights of car he wanted to be picked up by, both figuratively and literally.

Shane smirked, having achieved his desired result and leaned in for a kiss, which Ryan happily gave.

A finger slide along his side and Ryan twitched at the delicate, tickly feeling. ‘You have any other cool super powers I should know about?’ he asked after their kiss broke.

Shane shifted around and settled anew on his elbow. ‘Well there’s the healing, teleportation, telekinesis,’ he said. ‘I can make people fall asleep on command, I did that to you after you first met Ricky.’

Ryan sat up suddenly. It forced Shane back a little. ‘Wait a second, so the crash was real?’

Shane nodded.

‘What happened? Tell me everything.’

Shane chewed his lip in contemplation. It made sense, he was an FBI agent after all. Demon or not, he still had a duty to stick to regardless of how much Ryan had already been involved. A mix of different thoughts flashed over his face until he came to his decision. ‘Alright,’ Shane said. He decided to tell Ryan the truth. ‘We’d been following an unknown craft heading down to earth for some time. When it broke the earth’s atmosphere, I was sent to deal with the crash site and consequential fallout. I arrived after the craft landed, however. I saw you leave your housesit on your bike, then interact with Ricky. I thought they were dangerous so I took the best course of action by putting you to sleep, then sorting out the crash site wreckage – even threw your cute ghost slippers in the wash. All towards hoping you’d think it was just a dream, I thought I would catch Ricky before you’d have a chance to see them again but, as you know, that didn’t pan out at all like I expected.’

‘I did think it was a dream, yeah,’ Ryan said before he said something else. He appreciated being told the truth but the man laying half undressed with him now had gained more trust than the stranger which put him to sleep a few weeks back. The concept that only luck meant he hadn’t received a worse fate from Shane, luck that he was a good man only trying to look out for him with all the supernatural abilities at his disposal, and not someone who wanted to take advantage or attempt to kidnap him like his other agents, had clashed with all that stood between them. ‘How did you… how did you get rid of that crash wreckage?’ Ryan asked. ‘There was grass growing. The ground was completely undisturbed.’

‘Healing factor works on plants as well,’ Shane said, explaining, ‘I can accelerate their growth. And I had the energy for a lot of digging.’ He finished with a small smile.

Ryan’s gaze faded to the floor. All the pieces of that night finally put together and he didn’t like the picture.

Obviously Shane picked up on this behaviour. ‘Ryan, are you,’ he said slowly, ‘uncomfortable with my actions?’

‘Not quite.’ Ryan thought on everything again. ‘Kinda.’

Shane shuffled up some once more and manoeuvred the tie from around Ryan’s neck. He plopped it down on the floor beside them. Turning back, he reached out and ran a gentle few fingers over Ryan’s forehead into the hair line. Of all the touches he’d given this night that one shone out the most. He met Ryan’s eye desperately. ‘I’m sorry,’ Shane said, plain and simple. ‘I promise everything I did was with the intention of keeping you safe. But if I made a misjudgement, then I take responsibility for that and apologise. My job is to protect people like you, Ryan – those caught in the crossfire. It can lead to me making somewhat questionable decisions.’ He echoed his movement from earlier and brushed his fingers behind Ryan’s ear, a soft, ticklish caress. ‘But I want to keep you safe now because you’re more than that. You’re important to me and anything that will make you feel better or be happy is something I want to be doing.’

Ryan’s heart sung inside his chest. The hand went to retreat from his cheek but he snatched it back and, realising he must like it there, Shane cupped his face with both hands. ‘Shane,’ Ryan’s voice came out barely a whisper. ‘You keep doing that.’

‘What?’ Shane said and he couldn’t help but start to smile.

Ryan couldn’t stop it spreading to his own, a warm glow in his chest. ‘Making me feel really special when I don’t know what to do about it.’

‘You don’t have to do anything, Ryan,’ Shane said, stroking a thumb across his cheek. ‘I’m here, I’m not going anywhere, take all the time you need.’

Ryan still had his hand over Shane’s. He squeezed the hand and leant against that side. A thought crossed his mind abruptly and he straightened his head up. ‘Is that something you can do, by the way? I noticed I always feel so at ease around you,’ he said.

Shane’s eyebrow shot up. ‘Ah, yeah that would be me. I can give off, let’s call it,’ he twirled a finger of his free hand in mid-air, ‘a pheromone that can help humans to calm down.’

‘Oh,’ Ryan said, matter of fact. ‘This... makes a lot of sense actually.’

‘I can switch it off if you don’t like it.’

‘No, no, I like it,’ Ryan squeezed his hand again as if that were a way to stop him from flicking some biological switch, although he figured that wouldn’t be the case. ‘Keep it on.’

‘Okay,’ Shane said and he leaned to plant a kiss on Ryan’s forehead. He let go of his face then and resettled himself on Ryan’s bare chest. ‘It can only work so far anyways. If you actively try to stress yourself around me, there’s nothing I can do supernatural wise to stop that,’ he said with a shrug.

‘I can think of something _else_ that would.’ Reaching forward, he sent a flurry of kisses up Shane’s neck.

The man giggled at the touch. ‘What happened to wanting a shower?’ he said before Ryan could reach his earlobe.

Ryan sighed, pulling back. ‘Yeah we probably should.’ He thought of Ricky. ‘I should have said earlier, though,’ Shane looked to him, ‘I want to head back to the housesit to try and find Ricky. They’re gonna hate me for it but I wanna keep them with me somewhere so we have a chance of protecting them against those guys who came after me. Presumably that’s what your plan is.’

Shane clambered off him all long limbs everywhere and Ryan instantly felt the absence of heat. He watched Shane sort himself out, tucking himself back in his pants and collecting his white shirt off the floor. ‘Can’t you call off your guys somehow to give us more time?’ Ryan asked carefully.

‘That’s not gonna make any difference,’ Shane threw over his shoulder.

‘It might make some, Shane,’ Ryan said, insisting. ‘They threw me into a shopping aisle and broke one of my ribs.’

‘Wha—?’ Shane stiffed suddenly and Ryan knew in an instant he’d said the wrong thing. He turned around wearing strange expression. ‘Ryan, those people who attacked today were not my team.’

‘What?!’ Ryan said and he shot upright. ‘But you said you had a team! Isn’t that who you’ve been reporting back to?’

‘It is, but they’re in LA,’ Shane said, ‘I’m the only one of my team on site. I’ve said that since the beginning.’

Ryan’s blood ran cold. ‘Oh god,’ he said on an exhale. ‘I thought you had a whole team watching me all this time and you were just the only one to talk to me in person.’

‘That’s ‘cause it’s just me here,’ Shane said. ‘I didn’t watch you, technically, at least not for longer than a couple minutes after the crash and when I wanted to approach you in Home Depot.’ He continued on while folding up his shirt and sorting through the draws in the corner, so it kind of came out as a mumble, ‘I don’t like stalking people, Ryan, especially if they’re innocent.’

Sitting up Ryan became instantly aware of the mess on his stomach. He flung his legs off the side to sit on the edge of the bed. ‘That time I called you round and you stayed the night,’ he said, looking down at his collected hand. ‘I asked because I felt like someone was watching the house,’ he felt Shane’s gaze on him now. ‘I believed it was your team and so that if I called you there, then they’d see a reason to pull back.’

Footsteps made their way over to his side and a warm hand landed on his shoulder. Ryan glanced up at Shane, something sincere shining in his eyes. ‘I swear to you it’s only me here, Ryan. And, even if it weren’t, my team wouldn’t hurt you like that,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t work for people who would do that to someone unarmed. I may be the only non-human but the people I work with …they’re not scary monsters who terrorise innocents. We aim to hit the real _real_ bad guys without having to go through the general public to do it.’ His hand came up and brushed under Ryan’s chin. ‘Surprisingly I don’t have to fight often on the job. But, honest to god, those people who came for you would not hold back. I just thought they were angry locals, so I went easy on them. And then they gave me a hit that on a human would have broken my jaw, for sure.’

‘I believe you, Shane.’ And he did, he believed Shane, sat naked on a bed looking up at him. He wasn’t dumb enough to put his faith in the entire system, but he could trust this one man and what he would say. If this option had been struck off, however, then there could only be one explanation. ‘I think I know what they might be,’ Ryan said and Shane raised an questioning eyebrow. ‘I think they come from the same place as Ricky.’

Shane nodded. ‘Hmm, makes sense.’

The mess on his stomach finally got too much and he stood up, starting an effort to clean up his clothes. ‘We need to get back to them right now,’ he said.

‘Go use the shower,’ Shane said, agreeing. He moved out of Ryan’s way as he collected his dungarees and underwear. ‘I’ll make do with what I’ve got for now.’

Ryan made his way to the bathroom, then stopped. He thought about it and after a few seconds reached out and grabbed Shane by the arm, ‘Shane, wait.’

‘Yeah.’

‘Promise me something, first.’

Shane already began to resist. ‘Ryan—’ 

‘ _Please_ ,’ he said and let go of his arm so he could only focus on the words. ‘Promise that no matter what happens, you’ll put Ricky before me. 

‘Ryan, I can’t—’

‘If it comes to it and you have to choose, please,’ he said. ‘I need them protected. It’s what I want.’ Shane’s eyes flashed to his then. ‘They’re the vulnerable one in all this. I don’t even know if they fully understand what’s going on so please just promise me. If you have to make a choice, you’ll check for Ricky first. 

Shane exhaled his next breath very slowly. His mouth moved in a way like he was chewing the words around inside. ‘I promise,’ he said eventually, ‘if there comes a moment where I have to …I’ll make sure Ricky is safe before I come to you.’

‘Thank you.’ Ryan made a move for the bathroom again.

Shane got in his way of the door frame, however. ‘Ryan, look after yourself,’ he said.

‘Same to you,’ Ryan said. It was silly acting like he was the only one worth worrying over in this situation, why couldn’t they all look out for each other?

‘I can’t be killed by these guys. You’re,’ Shane appeared almost pained by the words he wanted to say. ‘…I care about you, okay?’

Ryan couldn’t stop the nervous laugh in his throat. He had to push a joke out to deal with feelings that statement arose, ‘oh good ‘cause I brought you a spare tooth brush and I’d hate to have to return it after a week—’

Shane cut him off abruptly by pulling him in for a kiss. ‘I’m serious, Ryan,’ he said, pulling back. ‘Just …look after yourself, okay? Promise me?’ The hand he’d used to reel him in brushed again his cheek again, the same movement he’d done before, and he leant down to rest their foreheads together.

Ryan breathed in the same air as Shane and said, ‘I promise.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have a lot of uni work to do in the coming months so the last chapter could take a while, depends on how much i feel like procrastinating lol xD
> 
>  ~~if i could rewrite worth a damn i might have changed the beginning of this, but i get so caught up in not being accidentally unhealthy that i feel i become a self-fulfilling prophecy~~ ugh i hate writing sometimes


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